Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) is the National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions provider and the leading broadband and backbone infrastructure services provider of Sri Lanka. For over 163 years, the Company has served the Nation’s need for connectivity, operating on fixed, mobile, and other operational segments. SLT fulfil the needs of over nine million customers in the island through its high speed fibre, copper, and wireless access network. Company’s transformation into a digital service provider have enabled to move beyond telecommunications services, to provide a variety of services and solutions that cater to a digital lifestyle. SLT is positioned as a key global player by connecting Sri Lanka to the world through international submarine cable systems.

Vision

All Sri Lankans seamlessly connected with world-class information, communication, and entertainment services

 

Principal lines of business

The Sri Lanka Telecom (“SLT”) Group provides diversified services and a wide range of ICT solutions to its diverse customer base through the latest technologies. These cover fixed and mobile telephony, broadband, data services, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), cloud computing and hosting services, and networking solutions.
SLT’s primary strategic segments are:

• Fixed ICT operations
• Mobile ICT operations
• Other segment operations

Fixed and mobile ICT operations constitute the core business, collectively accounting for 98% of revenue, 98% of total assets, and 97% of capital expenditure of the SLT Group in 2020.

Secondary lines of business

In its journey of transformation into a digital service provider, SLT has expanded beyond ICT services to deliver products and services that utilise its core strengths, expertise, and assets. SLT offers the following services through its subsidiaries:

• IPTV services and content creation facilities
• Human Resources solutions
• ICT infrastructure and system integrator solutions
• Directory services
• Digital marketing solutions
• Tertiary educational services
• Healthcare channelling platform
• Submarine cable maintenance
• Software solutions

In addition to diversifying the Group’s revenue streams and portfolio, the Company also seeks to build up the core competencies of the Nation and the
Sri Lankan people, and elevate the image of Sri Lanka as a global player in the telecommunications industry.

Products and markets

Fixed ICT operations

SLT operate in the fixed ICT business, providing telecom networks and ICT services to organisations of all sizes across all economic sectors, other telecommunications operators and internet service providers (ISPs), public sector institutions, and domestic customers. The range of ICT facilities and services provided by SLT include voice, data, broadband, wholesale, enterprise, cloud, international, and IPTV. One of the Group’s key strategic objectives is to drive adoption of broadband-based consumer and enterprise services by expanding the broadband footprint through the Next Generation Network (NGN) and National Backbone Network (NBN). These efforts are supplemented by an array of technologies including optical fibre, ADSL2+, VDSL2, carrier-grade Wi-Fi, and both fixed and mobile 4G LTE technologies. Using the multiple international submarine cable networks, SLT offers state-of-the-art global services, securing its position as a key global player in the telecom industry.

Mobile ICT operations

Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd. (“Mobitel”), a fully-owned subsidiary of SLT, is the pioneer in bringing the latest mobile technology to the local market. The Company offers a host of ICT services including mobile telephony services, high-speed broadband, enterprise solutions, IDD services, mobile
money (mCash) and a host of value added services.

Mobitel is the pioneer in South Asia to launch a Super 3.5G HSPA network and successfully demonstrate HSPA+ Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology. For the first time in South Asia, the Company successfully trialed 4.5G-LTE Advanced Pro technology with Carrier Aggregation (CA) of three bands in 2016 and in 2017, Mobitel was able to deploy the first Sub-1G Mobile Broadband Network in Sri Lanka innovatively to provide a broader 4G coverage in rural areas of the country. And also Mobitel launched the first commercial 4.5G/4G+ mobile network to provide an unparalleled broadband experience delivering burst speeds up to 300 Mbps to Sri Lankans in 2018. In April 2019, Mobitel was the first network in South Asia to successfully showcase the deployment of 5G over a mobile network by connecting a commercial mobile smartphone to its 5G network with a speed record of 1.55 Gbps and the first network to be recognised as the first mobile 5G network on the Ookla 5G map.

Mobitel unveiled the first 5G site at its store in One Galle Face, offering customers the opportunity to experience the true power of 5G with Mobitel and users who have 5G enabled smartphones can now experience Mobitel 5G technology at Mobitel X-Station. Mobitel is in the process to expand more 5G-experience locations around the country and expect to commence commercial 5G operation in near future with TRCSL commercial 5G license issuance. The Company has fuelled
over USD 700 Mn. worth of investments to date, shaping Sri Lanka’s ICT landscape experiencing exciting growth, poised to lead Sri Lanka towards an info com and knowledge rich society. Mobitel’s coverage extends nationwide and includes international roaming with the partnership of a global web of over 750 networks, to ensure digital inclusivity to all Sri Lankans.

Having pioneered 5G in Sri Lanka and South Asia and publicly demonstrating the first 5G Massive MIMO deployment over 3.5 GHz spectrum, Mobitel completed the First 5G Voice Call in South Asia successfully. During 2020, Mobitel displayed the transformational potential of 5G Technology, by telecasting the first 5G enabled Mixed Reality Live TV Show via its 5G Network in collaboration with SLT Peo TV - Charana TV Channel. By allowing geographically dispersed participants to be connected into the virtual events in real time, the telecast demonstrated how low latency and high-speed capabilities in 5G Technology can make virtual reality boundaries seamless.

Mobitel was the first mobile network operator to deploy a Sub-1G mobile broadband network utilising 850 MHz spectrum in Sri Lanka, increasing 4G LTE coverage across the island. In 2018, Mobitel commenced rolling out its largest-ever 4G LTE expansion project and deployed over 3000 LTE sites across the nation together with Voice over LTE (VoLTE), enabling customers to make high quality voice calls over the LTE network. Taking another innovative step towards the digital transformation, Mobitel provided a state-of-the-art LTE Critical Communications solution to a leading container terminal operator for the first time in Sri Lanka.

In recognition of the exceptional broadband network experience, Mobitel have been continuously recognised by Speedtest Awards by Ookla, the global leader in internet speed testing, as the fastest mobile network in Sri Lanka for the second consecutive year in 2019 and 2020. This is the third time that Mobitel has achieved this award, the first being in 2017.

Mobitel is capable of delivering coverage with increased penetration, with the launch of South Asia’s first NB-IoT network in the 850/900 MHz spectrum. This enable use by sensors, embedded deep within concrete structures or underground such as those required for smart meters, disaster monitoring sensors, and car park sensors. Mobitel have demonstrated the use of NB-IoT as a powerful technology in urban farming and home safety systems as well. Mobitel successfully provided connectivity to variety of commercial NB-IoT solutions island-wide and has conducted further PoCs and trials with many other industries to improve their efficiency and productivity. Further, Mobitel has made great steps in recent years to expand its influence in IoT and Automation to bring the state-of-the-art advanced technologies to Sri Lanka enterprises.

Our reach

Covering the entire island, the SLT Group serves a customer base of over nine million customers across fixed and mobile ICT services. The wide range of customers include domestic users, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), retail customers, multinationals and enterprises, public sector institutions, and other operators and wholesale customers. The extensive fibre optic network, with broadband speeds of up to 1 Gbps, extends nearly 60,000 km across the Nation.

Network connectivity

Having laid out 60,000 km of core fibre throughout the island, SLT has extended fibre access. With this implementation of Fibre network, SLT has replaced its

legacy access network by fiber technology and monetised the access network of copper cables valued over LKR 6 Bn.

All traffic from various points in the island is accumulated through over 500 nodes connected throughout the country. This enables SLT to route data to its destination within milliseconds. The core transmission network is equally built with an ultra-high-speed capacity and cutting-edge routers.

The mobile network connects over
7.9 million subscribers across Sri Lanka with voice and broadband wireless services. Mobile subscribers can connect via GSM/EDGE (2G/2.5G), UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSPA+ (3G/3.5G/3.75G), LTE/LTE-Advanced (4G/4.5G) technologies through Mobitel.

SLT has deployed a new Fibre network as a part of the Company’s accelerated fibre initiative. This will facilitate new high-speed broadband services to enterprise and residential users across the country. The Company is rapidly enhancing its broadband footprint in Sri Lanka to better respond to growing ultra-broadband demand from customers and provide access to a platitude of broadband-based services. The Company aims to ensure its network is future-proofed, enabling it to evolve to virtualisation and software defined access networks (SDAN) by software upgrade.

National Backbone Network (NBN)

SLT’s advanced fibre optic based nationwide telecommunication main backbone network is a veritable asset in the country’s development. The network is built on 100G technology, 500+ nodes, and 61 SLBN nodes which are always functioning due to comprehensive protection schemes such as Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) and a comprehensive 1+2 redundancy system. The high quality network is one that features a high speed of 8 Tbps combined with extremely low latency.

SLT’s IP network is the largest network in the island. It comprises 100 Gbps backbone, metro rings, and multiple access rings consisting of over 500 high-capacity nodes and over 3,000 service segregation nodes. The network provides intelligent IP transport services for various platforms which are related to delivering SLT’s retail products (broadband, PeoTV, 4G, and Wi-Fi) and connecting government, enterprise, and network carriers. The NBN aims to facilitate Sri Lanka’s ICT development plans with the future needs of all ICT operators in the country.

South Asia’s first submarine cable depot

Galle Submarine Cable Depot Ltd. is South Asia’s first submarine cable depot, located in Galle. SLT formed a joint venture in conjunction with Indian Ocean Cableship Private Limited (IOCPL) to provide submarine cable spare storage facilities for regional telecom operators under the South East Asia Indian Ocean Cable Maintenance Agreement (SEAIOCMA) zone. The Submarine Cable Depot commenced operations in January 2019.

Global connectivity

SLT connects Sri Lanka to the world through five international submarine cable systems—SEA-ME-WE 3, SEA-ME-WE 4, SEA-ME-WE 5, Bharat-Lanka and Dhiraagu-SLT system. SLT is a key member of the SEA-ME-WE 5 cable consortium with a full cable landing station in Matara with a capacity to connect to the East and West cable segments at 36 Tbps each.

SLT’ s investment in SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine cable system that run from Singapore to France has a bandwidth of 120 Tbps. This will become a key part of the content delivery network as SLT strategises to focus on supporting rich media and video content in the future. The cable network is a vital component of the Sri Lanka’s 5G network as well. This would provide customers access to rich content hosted in other countries with high-speed connectivity to those locations. The investment in SEA-ME-WE 6 cable has moved Sri Lanka’s global connectivity capacity to the next level - with Terabits of capacity; making Sri Lanka and SLT-Mobitel ready to take on the anticipated data explosion.

Market presence

Following the SLT-Mobitel brand unification, regional flagship stores were opened in two main cities to offer customers the opportunity to experience and purchase comprehensive telecommunication solutions. Providing best in class service and latest technological solutions, the regional
store will empower customers with fully-fledged telecommunication and mobile solutions ranging from Ultra-fast broadband connections, Smart home solutions, automated bill payments, home entertainment services, state-of-the-art mobile and telephone equipment and many more telecommunication accessories.

Customers can continue to avail of SLT and Mobitel services through the Teleshops and regional telecommunication offices in strategic locations across the Nation within convenient reach of customers. The island-wide extensive dealer and reseller network, enables customers to easily purchase recharge cards and register for broadband and LTE services. Furthermore, customers can pay their bills online at most major banking institutions, supermarkets, and selected retail outlets.