{"id":42583,"date":"2015-08-10T16:36:53","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T20:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42583"},"modified":"2015-08-10T16:36:53","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T20:36:53","slug":"sri-lankas-google-wi-fi-wont-be-free-of-charge-to-consumers-says-md-of-icta-muhunthan-canagey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=42583","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Google Wi-Fi WONT be Free of Charge to Consumers says MD of ICTA Muhunthan Canagey"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Azhar Razak<\/strong><\/p>\n

The provision of wi-fi internet services through Google\u2019s Project Loon is not going to be afforded to consumers \u2018free of charge\u2019 once the project is in full flow post-March 2016, the Managing Director of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Muhunthan Canagey told The Nation Gain in a recent interview. Canagey\u2019s comments came in the wake of a misinformation campaign doing the rounds especially by a section of government representatives that Sri Lanka will benefit from \u2018free\u2019 wi-fi services as a result of the Project Loon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe agreement is not for testing but for live commercial deployment. Once Google is done with the successful rolling out of the 13 balloons expected to be complete by March 2016, Google will engage in discussions with local mobile telecom operators and discuss the revenue-sharing agreements for the provision of the wi-fi services,\u201d Canagey said.<\/p>\n

He explained that telecom operators who were at present not providing internet services to the most-remotest areas in the country due to commercial non-feasibility (high investment costs involved in laying out the infrastructure but comparatively low demand) are expected to take advantage of the Google\u2019s balloons and expand coverage.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The ICTA MD however noted that the internet balloons expected to provide connectivity across the entire country will trigger a drastic reduction in both data and voice call charges whilst Sri Lanka will benefit from a doubling of broadband speeds, where a minimum download speed of 10 Megabytes per second could be expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cEstimates show that when you double broadband speeds, it will result in the country\u2019s economic growth rising by an additional 3%,\u201d Canagey, one of the country\u2019s youngest entrepreneurs told in a keynote address made at the Economic Summit 2015 held last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of spending many years and even more zillions of dollars laying cables, Sri Lanka and Google will put the Internet in the air, floating 12 miles above the Earth, and beaming down connections to every town and village.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Project Loon\u2019s first mass deployment, after trials in New Zealand and Brazil. On June 28th, Google signed an agreement with the Sri Lanka government that will let local telcos connect to the balloon network,\u201d foreign media reports said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Australia-based cnet.com reported that the inking of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) means both sides will only explore the possibility of testing Google\u2019s high-flying balloons in the country, but nothing has been finalized.<\/p>\n

Amidst the confusion over the conditions listed out in the MoU signed with Google, informed sources told The Nation that the reason why both parties did not a make a formal disclosure in the form of a joint statement had been due to \u2018protocol\u2019 issues.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Nation<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Azhar Razak The provision of wi-fi internet services through Google\u2019s Project Loon is not going to be afforded to consumers \u2018free of charge\u2019 once the project is in full flow post-March 2016, the Managing Director of the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Muhunthan Canagey told The Nation Gain in a recent interview. Canagey\u2019s …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sri Lanka\u2019s Google Wi-Fi WONT be Free of Charge to Consumers says MD of ICTA Muhunthan Canagey’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42583"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42584,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42583\/revisions\/42584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}