Etisalat beats the rest with “really fast” internet

By Cheranka Mendis

Etisalat yesterday beat the rest of the mobile telecom industry by launching the country’s first ever 3.75G network, assuring the fastest ever Internet speed among other benefits.

Coming in when the internet penetration is still taking baby steps in Sri Lanka with just an eight percent reach, the new device will place Etisalat as the world’s 23rd network provider to introduce and offer a delivery speed up to 42Mbps.

“We are now really, really fast,” says CEO Etisalat Dumindra Ratnayake (centre) while Chief Technical officer Etisalat Sanath Pilapitiya (far Left), Deputy CEO/Chief Financial Officer Riyaaz Rasheed and Chief Sales Officer Etisalat Sanjeewa Samarasingha (R) look on - Pic by Daminda Harsha Perera

Offering cutting edge solutions, Etisalat claimed that the company completely overhauled a Long Term Evolution (LTE) ready network, also for the first time in Sri Lanka with the 3.75G HPSA+ (evolved high speed packet access) wireless network.

With such latest technologies introduced, Etisalat now holds its place as the country’s first and only all-IP based network which has the capacity to provide a mega data rate up to 42 Mbps using dual carrier technology.

Even though Etisalat currently demonstrates an impressive data rate of 37.26Mbps over and above, it is limited by the availability of devices capable of supporting such speed. “We will wait for the market,” CEO of Etisalat Dumindra Ratnayake said.

He explained that research conducted by the company portrayed that among key barriers for the slow growth in internet penetration in the country, lack of knowledge on the usage of internet, lack of internet storage capacity, lack of parental security and the language barrier took centre stage.  Ratnayake told the Daily FT that with only eight percent exposed to the internet, the growth potential of the industry remains high and with such innovative products launched, the company aims at taking on a lion’s share of the market in the near future.

Hesitant to reveal numbers, Ratnayake stated that the sales target for the Sri Lanka’s first ever product was to exceed 100,000 consumers within a year. “People might say this is a very limited number. But the industry can grow by 98% to reach the 100% that the mobile industry is today at. We have time and we are aware of what we must do to enjoy a bigger percentage of the market.”

In an attempt to zoom in faster and take what they can, Etisalat with its new and faster internet connection offers a package that bridges most of the so called barriers for industry growth. Ratnayake announced yesterday that a special page titled ‘mypage’ is offered to Etisalat internet users which provides user friendly assistance to the users to set up favourite pages and know the basic connection facts and figures. “We have also made our website trilingual expanding the online consumer base. This we believe is yet another first for the industry,” he said.

Etisalat currently has some 500 3G nods placed all over the island covering the main cities of Jaffna, East coast, Colombo and main cities within Colombo and outskirts under Phase 1 of their plans. Development under Phase 2 will start soon expanding the service wider, covering all corners of the island, Ratnayake said.

According to company research, many have also expressed their dislike for speed throttling for which Etisalat now gives an option of ‘pay-as-you-go’ or ‘buy more’ without halving the speed. “Parental concern also ranked high among the reasons why many stayed away from the internet. To correct this fact we have tied up with Content Watch Inc. to provide NetNanny which is recognised as one of the best parental control softwares in the world. This would enable access control for parents and can even be made under time controls.” He asserted that the software download usually costs an approximate US$40 (Rs.4400) but under Etisalat is given at Rs.60 per month.