Sri Lanka Telecom’s (SLT) newest submarine cable landing station, SEA-ME-WE 5 was inaugurated by President Maithripala Sirisena at Browns Hill, Matara last Monday. The cable will enable SLT to provide a higher transmission speed at a reduced rate.
“SEA-ME-WE 5 (acronym for South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe) will increase transmission speeds tenfold which will enable us to provide a faster service at cheaper rates,” said Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure, Harin Fernando.
SEA-ME-WE 5 will increase SLT’s international bandwidth capacity tenfold which would be sufficient to meet Sri Lanka’s ICT requirements for the next twenty five years. SEA-ME-WE 5 is capable of delivering a gigantic 24 tera bits per second global bandwidth capacity.
India
“At present we are one step ahead of our giant neighbor India as they are yet to connect to the SEA-ME-WE 5 cable network. We must be grateful to the present government for establishing a Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure with the future needs of the country in mind. By April next year we hope to provide every Advanced Level student in the country with a tab and a keyboard with internet connection by which way we will be introducing ICT to rural families.
The pilot project we held at Visakha Vidyalaya, Badulla was a big success.” the minister said.
“The Local Government Network (LGN) which is to be introduced shortly will help reduce government expenditure on printing, travelling and officials’ time in day to day administration of the nation.” the minister said.
Group Chairman, Sri Lanka Telecom, P. G. Kumarasisiri Sirisena said, “Sri Lanka Telecom has invested over Rs. 20 billion on the SEA-ME-WE 5 cable system which spans more than 20,000 kilometers and was completed within a space of two years. Sri Lanka Telecom always makes far sighted investments to meet the nation’s future ICT requirements. Of SLT’s total investment of Rs. 275 billion, Rs.100 billion has been invested on digital technology.”
“The tier 3 data centre being completed in Pannipitiya will be commissioned next month.We have achieved 25,000 kilometres of fibre for this project at a cost of Rs 20 billion to meet the future needs of Sri Lankans. SLT Mobitel will be able to provide islandwide 2G, 3G and 4G coverage by next year.”
“This is a historical occasion as it is the second time that the head of state has visited SLT. It was in 1976 that Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike visited an SLT property,” he said.
President Maithripala Sirisena digitally laid the foundation stone for South Asia’s first state-of-the-art Submarine Cable Depot in Galle port which will be operated and managed by SLT and provide submarine cable maintenance within an area between Djibouti in the West, and Perth in the South, Guam in the East and the northern tip of Taiwan from January 1, 2018. Sri Lanka will be the only Submarine Cable Depot in the South Asian region.
Joint Venture
SLT is to operate the cable depot in Sri Lanka as a Joint Venture, Galle Submarine Cable Depot Private Limited (GSCDPL) with Indian Ocean Cableship Pte Limited (IOCPL) which is a ship service provider for the South East Asia & Indian Ocean Cable Maintenance Agreement. (SEAIOCMA).
IOCPL is a Joint Venture Company of Singtel Singapore and Orange France. The newly formed GSCDPL will be a depot service provider under the SEAIOCMA while SEAIOCMA is the international consortium tasked with maintaining the undersea cable system.
Lawrance Parataz, Director of SLT said “We are very excited on being connected to SEA-ME-WE 5 and look forward to seeing Sri Lanka as the communication hub of the region”
Minister of Finance and Media Mangala Samaraweera, State Minister of Enterprise Development Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, Deputy Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Ifrastructure Tharanath Basnayake, District Secretary Matara Pradeep Rathnayake, Provincial Minister for Education Chandima Rasaputhra, Directors of Sri Lanka Telecom, Government officials and distinguished invitees attended the event.