The VGKs were to be in areas where traffic patterns allowed for sustainability. Just because people live in villages, it does not mean that they never come to market or that their children do not go to school or tuition classes in rural nodal points. Careful studies were commissioned to identify places where there would be enough foot traffic to make telecenters sustainable. All this was thrown to the wind and telecenters were given to temples primarily at the behest of the President. Obviously, they are unsustainable. No amount of assistance from the computer technician at the local Vidatha center is going to bring foot traffic to fundamentally unsustainable locations. That answer given by the Minister in the interview linked here is a non sequitur. A technician can keep the computers operational, he/she can’t bring customers. And the Minister seems to thinks that charging fees increases the digital divide and that not charging fees and having the center close down narrows it. He makes no mention of the vouchers that were designed and implemented under e Sri Lanka to address the issue without making the centers unsustainable.

Sadly, Professor Vitarana repeats falsehoods and lies by omission. Now we are compelled to blame the former man of science. He is, we now understand, a common or garden politician who cares nothing for evidence.

If he wants evidence, there is plenty. You see, we do not give up hope. All he has to do is get a list of VGKs and Nenasalas from ICTA and check their locations to see who is serving urban areas and who is serving rural. The vouchers were operational, the last time we asked. All he has to do is ask.

The residential program offers participants the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of regulations pertaining to infrastructure industries and regulatory economics as well as topical issues attendant to those industries, to share their experiences, to develop practical solutions to regional problems. While theory and principles covered are applicable across most infrastructure sectors, special attention will be placed on the following 4: Electricity, Transport, Telecom and Pipeline Industries (water, oil, gas)

Organized by LIRNEasia, the course maintains the tradition of teaching excellence which is a hall mark of the annual SAFIR Core Course.

More information on registration and discounts for bulk registrations can be found here

:: Daily Mirror – FINANCIAL TIMES ::
SLT is also shifting its focus to non-voice data services and delivering broadband technologies.

“SLT Chief Corporate Officer Mrs. Pat Abeysekara stressed that plans are underway to roll out 100,000 ADSL connections in all 32 regional telecommunications areas. A request for a tariff revision for ADSL has also been submitted to the TRCSL.

Trials will also be conducted with newer technologies like IP TV (Internet protocol TV allowing users to access pod casts and internet TV). This shift from providing telecom services to multimedia services is expected to expand SLT’s business scope and increase usage levels.

SLT is also expecting to conduct 2 Wimax trials in Colombo and Kandy, in collaboration with two vendors. Once the trials prove successful, the challenge would be to obtain commercial frequencies for a mass scale rollout.”

I think the talk provides the "big picture" of the necessity of telecom reforms of the type that we at LIRNEasia are involved in. If we are to go beyond simply giving people phones, to giving them "money in the pocket and hope in the heart" this big picture is essential.

_note_: For those reluctant to read Word Documents online (ie me) I’ve added the talk as HTML on the following page.