Mobitel unveils ‘M3’ for journalists

Kicks off pioneering initiative in South Asia with ITN

Mobitel recently announced ‘M3-Journalist’ a 3.5G service tailored to meet the stringent requirements of the journalist from the electronic media.

The service was launched after extensive trials carried out with Independent Television Network of Sri Lanka (ITN). Mobitel having launched South Asia’s first and only HSPA powered Super 3.5G network in December 2007, dishes out yet another first using its 3rd generation service under the name ‘M3-Journalist’ which potentially can empower M3 users to directly communicate through video telephony giving the ability to broadcast themselves live on Sri Lanka’s popular ITN television network initially.

The service was trialled live on Friday, 11th January 2008 and successfully commercially launched on Sunday, 13th January 2008 by the Minister of Mass Media and Information Anura Priyadarshana Yapa on ITN’s Sinhala news at 7:00p.m. and English news at 9:45p.m. The Minister was interviewed live remotely from the news studio through M3 Journalist whereby a video call was directly dialled into the ITN studio from the ITN reporter’s M3 phone who conducted the interview with the Minister at the Minister’s residence. The control room of ITN news studio scaled down the visual which was de-multiplexed from the video call and superimposed on the standard broadcast visual frame, finally shown as a ‘picture in picture configuration’ where the minister and the newscaster were both seen on TV on their interview.

Speaking on the ground breaking service ‘M3-Journalist’ the Minister of Mass Media and Information Anura Priyadarshana Yapa stated that “New technology needs to be incorporated to enhance the user experience of mass media in Sri Lanka. ITN has been proactively using cutting edge technology provided through M3 Journalist and thereby they have uplifted Sri Lanka’s journalism in a more sophisticated and ‘reality-based’ manner by the mere fact that public gets to see who reports and what is reported. As was demonstrated with my interview, latest technology like M3 has the power and the potential to enable almost everybody to report using their 3G mobile phones unlike before where a specially trained camera crew had to rush to a location to take footage then rush back to the TV broadcast studio which especially affects timeliness of breaking news reports. This way the news which the reporters bring in will be more effective as opposed to reading a statement.”

ITN took pride in launching M3-Journalist which is a first in South Asia.

“This was a breakthrough moment for ITN being the first Television Network in the region to incorporate 3rd Generation technology for news reporting” said Chairman of ITN, Anura Siriwardena. Siriwardena further went on to state “with Mobitel we have already taken measures to extend this service to other programs such as request shows, debates and reality shows while inviting our viewers to take part in our TV programmes through M3 Journalist. The real beauty is that M3 Journalist will turn any type of TV programme into a reality show by introducing the caller’s visual into the big screen.”

“With the launch of M3, we have already unveiled two important services which deal with mass media” said Mobitel CEO, Suren J. Amarasekera. “While M3 offers Mobile TV service thus ensuring true mobility to the TV viewers, M3-Journalist will add the ‘broadcast-yourself’ aspect which is in the boom in the most developed countries. We firmly believe that ‘social networking’ and ‘community driven’ services are fast entering the media evolution. As the national mobile service provider we consider it a privilege working with ITN in launching M3 Journalist with the participation of the Minister of Mass Media and Information Hon. Anura Priyadarshana Yapa. We believe that M3 Journalist will truly upgrade the connectivity of the broadcaster and the viewer from one-way-communication to two-way-communication using advanced video telephony to bring out true interactive infotainment to the citizens of Sri Lanka”.

ITN will actively involve the public in many TV programmes in the days to come and the M3-Journalist Hot line numbers to be dialled will be announced by the respective TV programme hosts.

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, the National Mobile Service Provider, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom. In January 2004, the company launched its fully-fledged 2.5G GSM network that is EDGE/GPRS enabled and designed to operate on dual band. In December 2007 the company launched its 3.5G HSPA network which is the first and only Super 3.5G network in South Asia. Investments committed to date in its 3.5G/2.5G networks and service offering totals over US$ 200 mn and is set to increase its present 1000+ base stations to 1500 base stations by the end the first quarter 2008.