Hiran H.Senewiratne (hsenewiratne@gmail.com)
The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) has partnered with Google to cover the entire country with 3G internet under the 'Google Loon project'.
The agreement was signed with Google and ICTA at the Prime Minister's official residence yesterday.
"The next government's five year economic development plan will enable Sri Lanka to become a knowledge based, highly competitive market in the region, which will be able to compete with Singapore and Malaysia, Deputy Policy Planning and Economic Affairs Minister Dr Harsha de Silva said.
"To achieve economic target, the government intends to make new technology more affordable and accessible to the people and iron out the gap between rural and urban and have and have-nots in the country," Dr de Silva said at the signing ceremony at Temple Trees yesterday.
He said that when they come to power after the election they will canvass a lot of investments for established colleges of technology improve the knowledge of youth to be more knowledgeable to face the future competitive world.
Dr de Silva also said setting up colleges of technology will help the younger generation to become future innovators, business leaders' and entrepreneurs Sri Lanka is the first country in the world to have Internet access covering the whole country with the government support, Google Vice President and Project Leader on GoogleX Project Loon Mike Cassidy said.
"Project Loon is the latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access," which is an important day for Sri Lanka to become the first country to launch covering the whole country, "he said
It is a network of balloons travelling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill in coverage gaps and bring people back online after disasters, Cassidy said.
He said it is expected to place 13 balloons above Sri Lanka over the next few months and internet service providers will have to connect this network through these 'floating towers' which will ultimately reduce their transmission costs.
ICTA Managing Director and CEO Muhunthan Canagey said that with this new project the whole country will become universally connected through the Wi-Fi system. Under this system they will be linking to 3500 government buildings to enhance relationship with the government and people, he said.
"Matara covered or Jaffna covered is now history. In a few months we will be able to say Sri Lanka covered," addressing the signing ceremony Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said.
The project is handled by ICTA with the collaboration of former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya who represents Lotus Flare.
www.dailynews.lk
The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) has partnered with Google to cover the entire country with 3G internet under the 'Google Loon project'.
The agreement was signed with Google and ICTA at the Prime Minister's official residence yesterday.
"The next government's five year economic development plan will enable Sri Lanka to become a knowledge based, highly competitive market in the region, which will be able to compete with Singapore and Malaysia, Deputy Policy Planning and Economic Affairs Minister Dr Harsha de Silva said.
"To achieve economic target, the government intends to make new technology more affordable and accessible to the people and iron out the gap between rural and urban and have and have-nots in the country," Dr de Silva said at the signing ceremony at Temple Trees yesterday.
He said that when they come to power after the election they will canvass a lot of investments for established colleges of technology improve the knowledge of youth to be more knowledgeable to face the future competitive world.
Dr de Silva also said setting up colleges of technology will help the younger generation to become future innovators, business leaders' and entrepreneurs Sri Lanka is the first country in the world to have Internet access covering the whole country with the government support, Google Vice President and Project Leader on GoogleX Project Loon Mike Cassidy said.
"Project Loon is the latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access," which is an important day for Sri Lanka to become the first country to launch covering the whole country, "he said
It is a network of balloons travelling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill in coverage gaps and bring people back online after disasters, Cassidy said.
He said it is expected to place 13 balloons above Sri Lanka over the next few months and internet service providers will have to connect this network through these 'floating towers' which will ultimately reduce their transmission costs.
ICTA Managing Director and CEO Muhunthan Canagey said that with this new project the whole country will become universally connected through the Wi-Fi system. Under this system they will be linking to 3500 government buildings to enhance relationship with the government and people, he said.
"Matara covered or Jaffna covered is now history. In a few months we will be able to say Sri Lanka covered," addressing the signing ceremony Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said.
The project is handled by ICTA with the collaboration of former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya who represents Lotus Flare.
www.dailynews.lk
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