Free Wi-Fi across the island by 2016 as Google launches loon in SL

[samv]

Don't you think it's dangerous to let an NSA front company to have that much access into the data mining of your country?

Of course it's dangerous and detrimental to Sri Lanka's security. Not to mention what will happen with neighbouring South India.

But Sri Lanka's prime minister is a pro-western puppet. Ranil Wickremasinghe is a darling of the USA which is part of the reason, no doubt, that this agreement was signed so hastily and without discussing it with the Sri Lankan people or the parliament.

This is the USA's lackey in Sri Lanka:

The same man was screaming and shouting about how the Chinese port city project in Sri Lanka was detrimental to Sri Lanka's security but has no qualms about handing over all internet in Sri Lanka and the airspace above to a US company with NSA connections!

He is a liability to Sri Lanka and the region.

 

[In arduis fidelis]

Bad idea for anyone related to defence because just like internet .org all activity will surely be monitored.

 

[Gibbs]

High speed broadband to link Sri Lanka state buildings | Economynext

ECONOMYNEXT – All government buildings in Sri Lanka are to be linked by high speed broadband to enable officials to share data and work in a collaborative manner, the head of the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) said.

“In the past we were not connected,” said Muhunthan Canagey, chief executive of ICTA. “The new government’s aim is to get all state buildings linked across so we could work together.”

Spatial data of the type produced by GIS (Geographical Information Systems) technology is used by many agencies, Canagey told a GIS user forum.

Tenders have closed for the project to link 3,500 state buildings with 100 megabyte connectivity to each other and to an information back bone of 100 gigabytes across all 25 districts, he said.

“This will ensure information stored in one building can be passed across to other organisations and citizens can also access it,” he said.

Sri Lanka is home to an estimated 15,000 GIS professionals and users with the technology having been used in the country for over two and a half decades in both the private and public sectors for civilian and military applications.

The conference was organized by GIS Solutions (Private) Limited, a unit of Justin Time Group which distributes the ArcGIS platform developed by Environmental Systems Research Institute, USA known by the acronym ESRI.

GIS has been in use in Sri Lanka since the 1990s for mapping and other applications using the geospatial data whose use is now becoming popular for building ‘smart communities’ where data is used to improve the quality of life for citizens.

 

[Gibbs]

Google Loon balloon crashes into Los Angeles suburb » The Nation


Neighbors in a quiet Los Angeles suburb were shocked this weekend to wake up and find a Google Loon balloon crashed on their street.

The mystery aircraft was found stuck in a palm tree in Janet Olaffson’s front yard in Chino Hills, California Saturday morning and quickly became a focal point of the neighborhood.

Olaffson says she didn’t see the balloon crash in her front yard, and didn’t even know it was there until sheriff’s deputies came knocking on her door.

‘We ran out, and the police said don’t go near it,’ Olaffson told CBS San Francisco. ‘At that time they had got a call from the company that said its a weather balloon.’

Residents gathered around to take pictures of the grounded 50-foot balloon and rumors quickly spread that it was a weather balloon on its way from Las Vegas to Japan.

But in reality, the balloon wasn’t monitoring weather at all – but an experiment in offering 3G internet on the fly.

The aircraft was identified as a Google Loon balloon, which the tech company is developing in conjunction with the government of Sri Lanka.

The Loon balloon is designed to float at high altitudes above earth and beam internet access down to the ground.

This specific loon balloon was supposed to land in the area, but crashed before it reached it’s intended destination.

Earlier this summer, Google engineers announced that they were focusing on testing these internet balloons in giant freezers to see if they have any leaks

The helium-filled balloons can beam 3G-speed internet to some of the 4.8 billion people in the world that are not yet online.

The testing has helped the balloons stay aloft longer than ever before. In February, 2014, the record streak for a balloon lasting in the stratosphere was 50 days.

By March 2, this year the record for a continuous balloon flight is 187 days.

As well as being better spotting leaks, since its launch two years ago, Google has streamlined the process to launch the balloons.

In 2013, the company needed 14 people and 45 minutes to get one aloft.

But according to a recent report by Bloomberg, Google has now built a portable hangar that contains a crane to stretch the balloons before filling them with helium.

Using this device, called the Autolauncher, four people can launch a balloon in 15 minutes.

Google is now also making the most of data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to predict weather patterns and improve the balloon’s ability to navigate winds.

According to Google, once the project is up and running, their balloons could supply internet to an area of about 780 square miles – twice the size of New York City.

Project Loon was developed in the company’s X Lab by the same team behind Google Glasses and the driverless car.

It is hoped it could save developing countries the high cost of laying fibre cables to get online and lead to a dramatic increase in internet access for the likes of Africa and south-east Asia.

By the end of the year, Google is hoping to provide a few days of continuous service in its tests. And by next year, it says the service could go commercial.

Loon could even provide emergency back-up for areas during natural disasters. (Daily Mail)

 

[Gibbs]

Despite progress, Malaysia’s Internet speed lags behind Sri Lanka, Thailand | Malaysia | Malay Mail Online

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — Malaysia has been ranked behind Sri Lanka and Thailand in average Internet speeds over the second quarter this year, as Asian countries set global benchmarks in the 2015 State of the Internet (Soti) second quarter report.

The report, released by content delivery network services firm Akamai Technologies Inc, listed Malaysia in 70th place worldwide with an average Internet speed of 5.0 megabits per second (Mbps).

The country registered a 17 per cent year-on-year improvement to broadband speed, but still left it five ranks below Sri Lanka which registered a 50 per cent year-on-year improvement to bump up its average speed to 5.3 Mbps.

Northern neighbours Thailand ranked 42nd overall with average connection speeds of 8.6 per cent.

The top-three countries on the global ranking are all from Asia, with South Korea topping the list with an average connectivity speed of 23.1 Mbps.

Hong Kong was second with an average speed of 17.0 Mbps, followed by Japan which averaged at 16.4 Mbps.

Singapore – which ranked 14th with an average speed of 12.7 Mbps – however, recorded the highest global peak connection speed at 108.3 Mbps.

The global rank for peak connection speeds was also dominated by Asian countries which filled out the top-five spots, with Hong Kong behind Singapore with a peak connection speed of 94.8 Mbps, followed by South Korea (83.3 Mbps), Japan (75.1 Mbps) and Taiwan (74.5 Mbps).

Malaysia’s peak connection speed topped out at 36.5 Mbps, placing it 57th globally and behind Thailand which ranked 20th with peak speeds of 51.5 Mbps.

Malaysia’s broadband adoption also lags behind its Asian neighbours, settling in 72nd place internationally with 55 per cent of its population with access to speeds of above 4 Mbps.

Comparatively, Sri Lanka – which is in the top-50 for broadband adoption – has provided access to connection speeds above 4 Mbps to 77 per cent of its population.

The top-five Asian counties under this category have provided connections speeds of above 4 Mbps to at least 90 per cent of their population – South Korea (96 per cent), Thailand (95 per cent), Hong Kong (93 per cent), Taiwan (90 per cent), Japan (90 per cent).

The percentage of Malaysians with access to speeds above 10Mbps, however, is far lower at 4.5 per cent, though only the top-10 countries globally have provided high-speed connectivity to at least 50 per cent of their population.

South Korea again leads the world in this category with 75 per cent of its population surfing the Internet at speeds above 10 Mbps, followed by Hong Kong (62 per cent), Switzerland (60 per cent), the Netherlands (60 per cent), Japan (60 per cent), Romania (57 per cent), Bulgaria (54 per cent), Sweden (53 per cent), Belgium (53 per cent) and Singapore (50 per cent), the only Southeast Asian country to make the top 10.

- See more at: Despite progress, Malaysia’s Internet speed lags behind Sri Lanka, Thailand | Malaysia | Malay Mail Online