Telecommunications in Sri Lanka
Telephone
Landlines in use: 2,496,014 (September, 2017)
Mobile Phones in use: 28,228,635 (September, 2017)
- Teledensity (Fixed Phones per 100 inhabitants) : 11.6 (September, 2017)
- Mobile Subscription per 100 people : 131.6 (September, 2017)
Telephone Network
Excellent domestic service in urban and semi urban areas. Inadequate service in rural and remote areas (2010), good international service (2010). The latest trend is the Fixed 4G LTE technology, because of this technology many Sri Lankans who live in rural and remote areas can now access a good telephone and broadband internet service.
Domestic
The national trunk network consists mostly of digital microwave radio relay and fiber-optic links are now in use in the Colombo City and all major cities and towns
International
Two submarine cables to India and the Maldives; one Satellite earth stations - Intelsat (Indian Ocean) (2009)
Broadband Internet access
Fixed Broadband Service Providers
| Operator | Technology |
|---|---|
| Dialog Broadband Networks | WiMAX, LTE TDD, LTE Advanced Pro TDD, Wi-Fi |
| Lanka Bell | WiMAX, LTE TDD |
| Sri Lanka Telecom | ADSL2+, VDSL2, LTE TDD, FTTH, Wi-Fi |
Mobile Broadband Service Providers
| Operator | Technology |
|---|---|
| Dialog | GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+, LTE FDD, VoLTE |
| Mobitel | GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+, LTE FDD, LTE-A |
| Etisalat | GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+ |
| Airtel | GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+ |
| Hutch | GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, LTE FDD (planned) |
Internet
The history of the internet in Sri Lanka began with the launch of the Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN) in 1992. The network was only made available to educational and research communities. In the 1985/1986 period with the use of an old TRS 80 model which ran Xenix, computer engineers and scholars were able to demonstrate a remote login from University of Moratuwa (UoM) which connected a computer in University of Colombo for the very first time.
Other Communication
Postal Service: Sri Lanka Post
Radio broadcast stations: AM 15, FM 54, shortwave 5
Television broadcast stations: 19 (2009)
Satellite Earth Stations located: Padukka and Colombo
Country code / Top-level domain: +94/LK
Telecommunications Regulatory Environment in Sri Lanka
LIRNEasia's Telecommunications Regulatory Environment (TRE) index, which summarizes stakeholders’ perception on certain TRE dimensions, provides insight into how conducive the environment is for further development and progress. The most recent survey was conducted in July 2008 in eight Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Pakistan, Thailand, and the Philippines. The tool measured seven dimensions: i) market entry; ii) access to scarce resources; iii) interconnection; iv) tariff regulation; v) anti-competitive practices; and vi) universal services; vii) quality of service, for the fixed, mobile and broadband sectors.
In Sri Lanka, the mobile sector receives higher scores than the fixed sector for all dimensions excepting interconnection. The broadband sector lags behind both the fixed and mobile sectors in all but one of the parameters (regulation of anti-competitive practices). What also emerges in the results illustrated above is that all the sectors – other than mobile sector USOs – fall below the 5.00 average performance level.
References
Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) Statistics
