Lanka’s Internet user penetration low, mobile broadband segment increasing
Thursday, 13 November 2014 00:00
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Sri Lanka’s mobile market passed the 100% subscriber penetration milestone in early 2014 and the mobile subscriber numbers have increased fourfold in just six years, a recently released market report said.
However, after a sustained period of healthy growth, the country’s fixed-line market had undergone a levelling off and suffered a significant decline in 2012/2013.
While there was a surge in mobile broadband services, fixed broadband penetration (as a percentage of population) was still less than 3% in early 2014, a market report titled ‘Sri Lanka – Telecoms, Mobile, Broadband and Forecasts’ by the Fast Market Research said. Fixed-line expansion had been boosted by the extensive application of CDMA-based WLL technology and the number of WLL services peaked in 2010/2011, but it had been falling since then, according to the report.
Sri Lanka’s internet sector remained underdeveloped, with the take up rate of broadband services being especially low, the report says, adding that there are positive signs, however, that this was starting to change, especially with the surge in mobile broadband services.
The development of the internet remains of particular concern for Sri Lanka, it says.
“In a country whose population is increasingly undeniably internet savvy and the government rhetoric positively supporting the nation going online, the estimated user penetration remained relatively low coming into 2014,” the market report concludes.
Despite signs of an enthusiastic user market, coverage and accessibility have continued to be limited and the sophistication of the available services generally low. The level of broadband access has been of particular concern.
By 2013/2014, however, fixed broadband internet services were being supplemented by a rapidly expanding mobile broadband segment, it says.
