Mobitel to back national Transformation with ICT

Mobitel, the country’s state owned mobile communication company intends to play a key role in national information and communication technology (ICT) transformation.

It is going through an organisational revitalisation process in order to gear up to make a greater contribution towards national transformation led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Under its ‘Change to Lead.Now’ organisational revitalisation process, Mobitel intends to enrich its workforce, deploy cutting edge technologies and increase its process efficiencies to be in a better position to contribute effectively, keep pace with the national transformation and lead the ICT technology transformation in the country.

Mobitel’s CEO Lalith De Silva who is hailed as a global thought leader and a specialist in Telecom, ICT and Project Management, outlined Mobitel’s thinking behind the revitalisation process in a recent interview with us:

Q: What is the philosophy behind the ‘Change to Lead.Now’ organisational revitalisation?

A:  The telecommunication market in Sri Lanka is fiercely competitive. All local mobile communication companies in the country are backed by global telecommunication giants. Mobitel has to be world class in terms of its human resources, processes and technology in order to compete with the rest of the industry. ‘Change to Lead.Now’ aims to make Mobitel a change ready organisation which has the ability to adapt to changes in the dynamic business and regulatory environment locally and internationally.

The country is going through rapid transformation driven by the head of the state with his vision and commitment. Peace dividends and national reconciliation efforts will further expedite the transformation in order to realise the nation’s dream to be the Wonder of Asia.  The country’s technology adaptation has to keep pace with its development goals in order to realise the high expectation of the Government and citizens. Mobile communication will play a vital role in the country’s ICT adaptation as mobile networks become faster and mobile devices more intelligent. Being the national mobile communication service provider, Mobitel has a responsibility to lead the ICT technology transformation in the country to complement and back the national transformation. We as an organisation are going through an organisational transformation in terms of people, technology and processes to be more equipped for this task. Once we go through this process of change, we will be in a better position to keep pace with the national transformation and contribute towards it in a bigger way.  

Q. Can you be more specific on Mobitel’s contribution towards national transformation?

A:  Mobitel is a technology player, more specifically, an information and communication technology (ICT) player. Our contribution will come from ICT. We are living in the digital age of the 21st century and have the responsibility to ensure that every child has access to the internet and ICT tools in order to be a part of the global village and lead them to be a part of the knowledge economy. Being a nationalistic organisation, everything we do will not be profit driven. We will also pay attention to our duty towards national ICT objectives, particularly towards our contribution towards empowering our future generations to build a model knowledge economy.

We recently decided to take some of our business functions to rural areas in order to create ICT based employment opportunities for rural youth. We expanded our call centres to Hambantota and will be opening a second facility in Mullativu. We also have started establishing IT development centres out of Colombo and the first such facility was set up in Kegalle.

The country is aiming to achieve a USD 4000 per capita income in the medium term. People will have sophisticated lifestyles and will demand sophisticated ICT services. We will invest in cutting-edge technology infrastructure to offer the most advanced mobile communication services in Asia to Sri Lankan citizens and enterprises, truly delivering our promise.

Mobitel being an ICT player, is gearing up to contribute more to the national economy by investing in technologies to offer mobile based ICT services to enterprises which will make them more cost efficient and productive. We believe that it will make Sri Lankan enterprises more competitive so that they can compete with their counterparts.  

Q: You seem to put emphasis on ICT. How is the country faring in the ICT area?

A: I believe that any nation which does not give due focus to ICT will lose out in the long run.    The Sri Lankan Government has recognised the fact that for sustainable development in the contemporary age, ICT has a vital role to play. Today the country has a very clear vision and commitment towards ICT led by the head of state. The appointment of a dedicated Ministry for Telecommunication and Information Technology by the President shows the importance ICT has on the national agenda. The Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology has formulated a five year national ICT plan with clear cut objectives. One of the key objectives is 75% ICT literacy by 2015.The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) is also making special efforts to increase the Internet penetration in the country in partnership with all operators.

Q: How is Mobitel planning to contribute towards national ICT objectives?

A: Mobitel will work closely with the Ministry of Telecommunication and IT and The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) in order to actively contribute towards national ICT objectives.

Especially, with mobile devices becoming more and more intelligent and affordable, we are now in a better position to contribute towards the 75% ICT literacy objective. Keeping our commitment to our brand promise ‘We Care Always’, Mobitel plans to offer more and more citizen services on mobile devices in order to take the benefits of ICT to every citizen of the country irrespective of age, language or literacy differences.

Q: You mentioned investments in cutting edge technologies? Can you please elaborate?

A: Mobile communication has revolutionised the way humans interact with each other. But we are yet to experience the impact of smart phones on the way we live and do business. Smart phones and the Internet together will make a much bigger impact. Mobitel, as always, is determined to lead the process of mapping benefits of technological revolution to the benefit of the country’s transformation so that both Mobitel and the country are ahead of the technology wave.

We recently completed our sixth phase of the footprint expansion to pass the 3500 base station milestone and keep on expanding our coverage by another 1700 base stations in the next phase with a high speed and high capacity network. Mobitel was the first to deploy HSPA+ MIMO technology in Sri Lanka. We are now in the process of deploying a fourth generation LTE (Long Term Evolution) capable network which will be the next generation technology for mobile broadband services. We plan to invest further on extremely smart and high capacity networks and world class ICT infrastructure in order to become one of the most advanced and smartest mobile operators in Asia.

However, to be a smart operator we need smart people and innovative processes. ‘Change to Lead. Now’ is about investing in people who will take Mobitel to that leadership position.

Q: As an ICT professional who has a wealth of experience and oversees exposure, what are your closing remarks?

A. ICT is a great tool to increase the productivity of the public and private sectors in our country. One of the areas where there could be improvement is professionalism in the planning, designing and implementation of ICT projects. ICT professionals in the country should adopt international best practices always and follow standards such as CMMI, ITIL, Project and Change management methodologies, etc in order to efficiently roll out ICT projects. We must encourage and nurture passion for work among professionals. This will lead us to a position where our professionals are agile, equipped with skills, and “change-ready” to compete with global corporate giants as well as the most advanced countries in the world in our march towards being the Wonder of Asia.