While voice revenues are declining, it appears that broadband will save the day. But only the day. The theoretical maximum of ADSL connections is 869,190 at this time in Sri Lanka. Many of the fixed lines cannot be used to supply ADSL or are connected to government departments, pensioner’s homes, etc. which may not want broadband, so the actual market size is lower. Of course, one could argue that new wires can be drawn. But the response to that would be to ask why draw copper when fiber is possible?
Anyway, our reading is that more people will get connected to the Internet through wireless than wire. We need millions connected, not lakhs, as now. But we are happy SLT’s day is saved by broadband. We hope they take a moment to thank the people who pushed for this service to be offered over the tired ISDN option back in 2002-03. Full story on LBO.
Sri Lanka Telecom, the island’s largest fixed access provider said fixed broadband user grew 40 percent to over 200,000 from by the September 2010 quarter from a year earlier.
SLT, a majority state-controlled firm which is 44 percent by Malaysia’s UT group has Sri Lanka only wireline network.
SLT said fixedwire line users grew by 20,000 due to strong demand for (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) data connections, the telco said in a statement.According to central bank data there were 869,160 wireline users by end September 2009. By the second quarter of 2010 it had risen to 879,690
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