August 15, 2005
Phones begin ringing in Sri Lankan villages as new technology arrives
After decades of waiting, telephones have finally begun ringing in villages and rural areas across Sri Lanka. Phys.org reports.
"Not mobiles, nor standard landlines, but a clever combination of the two that is quickly making telephony accessible to all.
... the arrival of the wireless technology known as CDMA (code division multiple access) sparked a mini-stampede in the capital Colombo for the new product.
CDMA is commonly used by operators in Asia and elsewhere for faster mobile phone connections but in Sri Lanka it is being used to provide fixed-line access so that telecommunication is available at affordable prices even in the most far flung regions.
At 130 dollars a connection, a CDMA phone is more expensive than a mobile unit, but the call tariffs are about four times cheaper as they are considered fixed-line and, unlike cellulars, incoming calls are free.
The new CDMA instruments resemble standard phones but are not connected to exchanges through conventional copper cables. Instead, they use the same wireless technology adopted by mobile phone companies.
"We are going to see a spike in the number of phones in the country with CDMA coming in and making it cheaper for operators to go out into rural areas," said Rohan Samarajiva, a former telecommunications authority in the island".
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