SLT aims to make Sri Lanka a broadband island

Mr. Priyantha Perera SLT’s Chief Marketing Officer

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) is endeavouring to convert Sri Lanka a broadband island, a development that will give a tremendous fillip to socio-economic prosperity in the country.

“We are relentlessly pursuing our strategy of making Sri Lanka a broadband island,” SLT’s Chief Marketing Officer Priyantha Perera told The Bottom Line. “In pursuance of this objective we are on an aggressive roll out of our broadband delivery,” he added.

Even with 1 Giga bps the growth of and demand for broadband connectivity has been explosive with over 100% increase in connections.

At present there are over 40,000 broadband connections provided by the SLT (as opposed to around 19,000 last year) and with the recent upgrade in the international backbone to 1.6 Giga bps, the national carrier is bracing to connect more.

Today broadband connections via fixed copper lines and fibre optic cables as well as other means such as CDMA (a broadband specific offering is EVDO which is pending regulatory approval), Wi-Fi are available in entirety of Sri Lanka including far flung places such as Vavuniya, Trincomalee and Hambantota. SLT has also done trials of broadband connections via WiMax. SLT broadband is also available via Mobile 3G.

“We have both the physical infrastructure and the required technologies to deliver broadband on demand anywhere in Sri Lanka,” Mr. Perera said. While the current demand for broadband is largely from Colombo district, SLT said provincial towns too were now joining the broadband market.

SLT is also empowering several macro level ICT initiatives including eGovernment and eEducation all of which will step up demand for broadband connectivity in the medium to long term. According to Mr. Perera, SLT’s revenue from data services is on the rise, now accounting for around 9% from 6% in the previous year.
“The use of internet as an important tool is on the rise while more organizations are opting for broadband solutions. In tandem with economic growth, sophistication and changing lifestyles and consumer habits and competitive environment, broadband connectivity will be the standard very soon,” Mr. Perera added.
SLT’s Head of IP and Broadband Network Division Priyanka Undugodage said that apart from aggressive role out for high speed internet provision, the focus is to innovate and add value via Triple Play applications such as IPTV, other multimedia and mobile commerce. “These applications can empower consumers and transform their lifestyles,” he added.

At the South Asia Broadband conference and exhibition, SLT’s industry leading expertise, cutting edge technologies and diverse solutions on broadband will be on show. The inner pages of the Bottom Line special report also features several other SLT initiatives.