Sri Lanka’s Internet and email subscriber base up 24% in 1Q

8 September 2015 02:45 am

Sri Lanka’s Internet and email subscriber base including mobile broadband services has increased 23.6 percent to 3.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period of the previous year.

The number of new Internet and email connections obtained during the first three months stood at an impressive 684,491, the Central Bank data showed. 
Sri Lanka ranks far ahead from its regional peers in terms of Internet penetration. Analysts have identified affordable smartphones and cheap mobile broadband connections as key reasons for the pick up in Internet usage.

The country’s Internet penetration use is set to increase with the new government’s ‘1000 Wi-Fi hot spots programme’ where each user is provided with 100MB free data per month at identified public places.

At the same time, Google recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Sri Lankan government to look at the feasibility of implementing its futuristic Google Loon project, which if implemented, can provide Internet access to the whole island nation despite geographical obstacles.

Meanwhile, the number of mobile phones in use at the end of the first quarter hit 22.7 million, a 6.2 percent or 1.35 million increase, compared to the same period of the previous year.

The country’s telephone density stood at 121.2 percent compared to 116 percent last year.

However, after a sustained period of growth, the fixed line telephony services recorded only 0.5 percent growth year-on-year as only 13,915 new connections were added in the first three months of this year.

The total number of fixed line connection in the first quarter of 2015 stood at 2.7 million.