The Government has launched measures to address the drop in mobile signals across Sri Lanka, State Minister of Digital Technology Namal Rajapaksa said today.
The State Minister said a programme is being worked out to introduce the transmission tower sharing concept through a joint initiative with all telecommunication companies operating in the country together with the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL).
Addressing a special press conference held today, he said the construction of one such transmission tower has commenced in Ratnapura, while the Ministry aims at constructing 49 towers in the Kurunegala District.
Thank you for flagging this. We are already working on this, 49 towers will be constructed to remedy this in the kurunegala district. 10 districts will be completed this year & the rest will be done within the next year. We need to ensure that rural areas have access to data!
— Namal Rajapaksa (@RajapaksaNamal) June 21, 2021
More transmission towers will be constructed across 10 districts, including in Matara by this year, while the remaining areas will be covered by next year, Rajapaksa said.
The State Minister of Digital Technology said 4G and 5G will be provided based on the requirements, while this programme will ensure that rural areas have access to data.
The Minister further pointed out that permitting the construction of transmission towers based on the personal agendas of telecommunication companies in the past has resulted in a lack of mobile signals in several areas of the country.
He said despite many transmission towers being built in the past, they were not included in the national plan at the time.
Namal Rajapaksa said this has resulted in causing a crisis and a high demand for mobile data in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, responding to a news report on students from Hettiarachigama in Kurunegala struggling with online education due to poor mobile signals, the Minister said the construction of transmission towers in Kurunegala will resolve this issue. (NewsWire)
