The Impact of usage of Mobile Telephone on country productivity in Sri Lanka

Abstract

countries has increased the country productivity (Central Bank of Sri Lanka, 2003). However it has some negative impact also, such as increasing health related problems and road accidents. In Sri Lanka also the usage of mobile phones has been increased by considerable number of units. At present there are an estimated number of two million subscribers handled by 75 operators (World IT report, 2003; Chanuka Wattegama, 2005). Developed countries like Japan, UK and USA use mobile phones not only for communication but also for day to day activities. In Japan, 75 percent of the most popular mobile phone holders use this facility mainly for the entertainment purposes (Ohkita, 2005). Accordingly, MPs are used to watch football matches, listen music and take photographs etc. These facts suggest that efficiency and effectiveness of the people particularly in their communication has been increased by the use of MPs. This study investigates whether the MPs have supported the private and public sectors in Sri Lanka to improve their productivity. Further investigations were made under this study to identify the other problems (health and road accidents) related to the usage of MPs. This study based on a regression analysis between usage of MPs and the productivity of the sectors such as banks and finance, stock market and the corporate sectors. The usage of mobile phones was identified as the independent variable and the productivity was considered as the dependent variable. In conclusion, there is a positive relationship between the usage of mobile phones and the productivity of Sri Lanka. Results show that co-efficient of determination (r2) is 0.72. Stock market activities depend on 90% by use of the MP’s information. 75% of the management level employees use their MPs mostly for urgent messages. The insurance companies are highly using their MPs, about 95%, for increasing their services. Bank executives have increased their productivity by 55% through the use of MPs. The study found no evidence, so far to presence that it has caused health problems in Sri Lanka. However, using MPs while driving has significantly increased road accidents.