‘”The Role of Mobile Services in Shaping the Telco Industry’’, Yasiru Abeygunawardana

Mobile-telco industry is a vastly evolving field with new technologies emerging to challenge the ongoing trends. Mobile network providers have a key role to play in aligning with new technologies to deliver value added service offerings. In terms of voice, internet, VAS services and roaming, there were noticeable improvements in recent years and mobile service providers are constantly researching for upgrading their services in line with latest innovations.

When talking about Mobile network providers, Mobitel is intuitively up there in terms of a superior service on par with latest technology and customer-oriented services. Being a key player in the mobile industry, Mobitel has streamlined its services to empower people from all walks of life. Recently introduced services like Master unlimited packages which provides access to unlimited data and both international and local calls, VoLTE which enables improved voice quality, Digital streaming services and expansion of 4G network around the country have facilitated the Sri Lankans with a perfect partner for Mobile network services.

A good mobile network provider is one which identifies the technological landscape of a country and make great efforts to bridge the gaps to connect with the world. As the National Mobile Service Provider, Mobitel continues to raise the bar for Mobile connectivity and its latest deployment  of 5G technology which was  tested successfully re affirms its purpose of bringing people close to what matters most to them

Yasiru Abeygunawardana, Senior Manager – Data, Devices and Enterprise Strategy at Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd, Elaborated on how Mobile Services will play a key role in revolutionizing the Telco industry. Following are the excerpts of the interview.

Q. As a leading Mobile network provider, how do you identifythe current Mobile-telco industry?

A. It is certainly challenging as this industry is evolving rapidly and we have to keep up with the market expectations and deliver go-to market solutions. As we are in the 4^th industrial revolution where technological advancements are dominating the day to day life of customers, We are working around the clock to offer value innovation and  to have a balance between our offerings and earnings. In 2019, we (SLT Group) earned a revenue of Rs. 86 billion, courtesy to the host of new services we unveiled. It is of utmost importance to identify customer expectations in designing new solutions and now a days, people are more likely to use data to a great extent. As a timely measure, we introduced special tailor made solutions like Master unlimited package at an affordable rate, special data packages and voice packages to support everyday users. Our special Youtube package and daily and monthly data plans have received a greater demand and much to the delight of the users, now we are offering bonus 4G data as well. As this trend increase at a rapid rate, we see the demand for Data will continue to grow and with 5G fast becoming a reality, it is expected that an average person’s Data usage will jump from 6GB to 17GB per month. As such, we have started to optimize our network infrastructure to make it 5G ready and are in the process of planning as to how best we could deliver this latest technology to all our valued stakeholders.

Q. How does Smart phone concept support a network provider like Mobitel?

A. At present, most Smart phones are 4G enabled and most recently we came across 5G Smart phones as well. Mobile phone manufacturing companies like Huawei are working closely to be in line with 5G technology and it is a commendable initiative. If you have the resources and technology, you need to move beyond your limits and embrace new innovations. Especially app stores have enabled us to build apps of our own and reach to the customers in a better way. These apps have facilitated our valued customers with a seamless experience. Most importantly, these apps have enabled reloads and online bill payment further easing up the busy life styles. In a nut shell, Smart phones are slowly taking over the menial day to day activities of customers by offering fast, secure and convenient services at the touch of their fingertips.

Q.You mentioned about Huawei and its innovations, how do you perceive Huawei’s services?

A. Huawei’s recent efforts in offering supreme services coupled with  a sound IT infrastructure has enabled the company to propel the Mobile Service industry to the next level. in fact, Huawei is listed as  among the top 10 brands of the world by Brand Finance. It is quite an achievement and we extend our compliments as a consumer business partner.

Q. Huawei Mobile Services and Huawei app Gallery are the latest entries to the telco market. How do you see this change?

A. As I mentioned earlier, Huawei has the capability to move beyond the limits, this decision clearly proves that and I reiterate that with the resources in hand, Huawei can challenge the world with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) This can be recognized as a revolution in the mobile-telco industry as we see the emergence of a 3^rd player to the market with unique features. HMS will be a perfect platform for research and development benefiting budding entrepreneurs, innovators and app developers.

Q. Finally, what can we expect from Mobitel in the future?

A. Whilst the voice segment has become saturated, we see an immense potential for data. Towards this we are continuously improving and upgrading our 4G services and parallelly getting ready for the next wave on 5G. Also we are working partners such as Huawei to integrate our apps with different platforms to provide a smooth service.  As the industry continue to expand, we as the National Mobile Service Provider are looking at furthering our footprint in Digital services such e-Health, e- Learning, and Enterprise Businesses Solutions.

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Yasiru Abeygunawardana, Senior Manager – Data, Devices and Enterprise Strategy at Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd