Print

Comment

Email

Digg

Del.icio.us

Reddit

A study by LIRNEasia last year revealed that Sri Lankan fixed and mobile broadband users were getting lower bandwidth than what was being advertised by the telecom companies. Following the report, Sri Lanka's telecom regulator has begun investigations on the same and the Telecom Regulatory Commission issued a severe threat that if companies were found guilty then strong measures would be taken against them. High speed Internet connectivity in Sri Lanka is offered by fixed line operator Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), its subsidiary, Mobitel, and Dialog Telekom.

LIRNEasia's research-which began in 2007-showed that by March 2009, Sri Lanka's two main broadband operators could only deliver 20% of the 2Mbps speed marketed. Sri Lankan telcos deliver 75% of the advertised speed in the last mile of the network. LIRNEasia says that broadband providers in Sri Lanka like their counterparts in other South Asian countries have focused mainly on the last mile connectivity of the network.

The 'last mile' is the final leg of the distribution network-from a communications provider to a customer. However, the networks suffer bottlenecks that arise from expensive international broadband connectivity. Sri Lanka broadband providers' last mile connectivity runs at 75%, which is quite good; but speeds are slow because they have not invested adequately in international broadband capacity. In North America, broadband speeds are more uniform due to bigger routers and better network management. In Asian countries, connectivity is better in the morning and evening, while at office hours speeds are poor.

In another recent report by LIRNEasia, it was revealed that the broadband scenario in the country is still just 'satisfactory'. The broadband quality of the two largest players in Sri Lanka's western province-where the capital, Colombo is located-is satisfactory when compared to international benchmarks. The study has been carried out using post-paid SIMs from a moving vehicle. LIRNEasia had compared its test results with the bandwidth promised by operators, if no operator specifications were available, against international benchmarks. But Dialog, a unit of Axiata of Malaysia, has wide mobile broadband coverage as well as Mobitel, a unit of Sri Lanka Telecom. Airtel Lanka also started mobile broadband services. The other two operators, Etisalat and Hutch provide data services via GPRS.

“The tests were carried out on Symbian and Windows CE platforms to meter high speed packet access (HSPA) services of telcos,” LIRNEasia says. According to the study, stationary and on-the-move readings of return trip time (RTT), jitter which is the variation of RTT, packet loss and availability readings were carried out at points on the main roads of Colombo and nearby towns of Kalutara, Negombo, Avissawella and Nittambuwa.

Madhura Mukherjee
madhurak@cybermedia.co.in