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Breaking
the Chicken-Egg Cycle: The Dialog way
By Nizla Naizer
The key philosophy of Dialog, in their 3G
quest, is to invest first and then create the market, stated
Chief Operating Officer, Dialog Mobile, Supun Weerasinghe.
“We are breaking the chicken-egg cycle,” he said
at the panel discussion on Mobile Broadband Strategies &
Solutions chaired by Chief Executive Officer, Dialog Fixed
Telephony & Broadband Services, Kavan Ratnayake. “We
put up a site in a rural area and we see the demand follow.”
The ICT fraternity from the Asia Pacific region gathered at
the GSMAP conference on Monday, to discuss the challenges
facing GSM technology 21-years on. Dialog has been a pioneer
in 3G Technology but, as Supun states, “In Broadband,
unlike voice, we have the problem of having the correct content.
In this region, consumers are English illiterate, we need
to ensure that the rural user can benefit.” Keeping this
in mind, Dialog has partnered with the Ministry of Education
and worked to bring local language content to their sites.
Speaking on the transition from voice to Broadband, Supun
went on to state that, they see the same opportunities with
Broadband that they saw with voice in the 1990s. “We
don’t see a difference with investing in 3G to the first
GSM network. We saw GSM as a good opportunity to capture a
good share of the voice market. Today, we have voice penetration
leveling off. Increasingly, we see that, there’ll be
huge competition on voice, but there’s great opportunity
on the Broadband segment.”
General Manager, Engineering & Operations, Mobitel Pvt
Ltd, Rasantha Hettithanthrige pointed out Mobitel’s standpoint
on the Broadband phenomenon,
“As an operator in the Sri Lankan market, we’re
at a critical juncture with regards to Technology choice.
You have an existing Technology which is mature, which will
bring in revenue.” He went onto say that, this is the
Shareholder’s prime requirement, along with a future
proof plan for their investments.
“I’m thankful to the vendor community that we have
backward compatibility. The risk to the operator is much less.”
Rasantha explains, “On the same note, I’d like to
say that, this transition is not without pains. There are
many pain points, especially, for an operator who’s invested
already in GSM 2.5. If you have a 10-year depreciation and
you’re 5 years in, if you want a new investment, you
have a lot of explaining to do to your Shareholder community.”
In Rasantha’s opinion, Reach is the key factor in Broadband
success. “You have to have the required Reach. Anywhere,
anytime, anyhow.” He goes onto state that, change is
also vital, “I can draw from an example. Ours is a company
due to a wrong Technology choice, found ourselves in a bad
position. However, we are now in a challenger’s position.
The rule in Telecom is this; you can’t get stuck with
Obsolete Technology.”
Director Asia Pacific Marketing, Huawei Technologies, Yeow
Ooh Sheng also speaking on the panel, commented on Kavan’s
question on the Sachet Broadband concept. “Affordability
towards the bottom of the pyramid is important,” he says,
“There are many ways for us to maneuver. At the bottom,
they need the connectivity when they really need it as a necessity.
Not monthly, you can break it down in a much more understandable
way. One hour or two hours, to give them the opportunity to
get connected.”
Head of Sales & Business Development, Ericsson India Ltd,
Vinay Dhar had his insights on the Indian context to add to
the answer, “India is going through this journey of allocating
3G spectrum. Early studies indicate that voice in isolation
is not the answer for the Business Case for 3G. The way 3G
spectrum works is for Data,” he says, “Tele-medicine,
Tele-education. Would there be a Business Case to have those
applications? The point is that it’s in the relevance
of that Service or Application to the End User.”
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