Strategic direction

As the National ICT and Telecommunications Service Provider, SLT remains committed to supporting the Government’s vision of creating a Digital Sri Lanka, leading Sri Lanka towards a knowledge-based society by empowering every Sri Lankan with supreme connectivity solutions, and transforming business with digitalisation. In order to become Sri Lanka’s most preferred digital lifestyle solutions provider, SLT is on a transformational journey to become a digital service provider (DSP) from a communication service provider. Through this transformation, SLT is laying the foundation for a new digital era in Sri Lanka – providing superior, world-class digital services to the public, radically transforming people’s lifestyles for the better and building a digital future for everyone.

A sustainable strategy

SLT aims to build a digital society that enhances an inclusive socio-economic progress. This strategic vision is aligned with the Government’s vision of taking Sri Lanka into the global arena in tandem with international digital advancements. This includes five-pronged strategy:

• Addressing the 360° digital needs of customers
• Contributing to a smarter Sri Lanka
• Expanding SLT’s global footprint
• Continuing business diversification through subsidiaries
• Leveraging and nurturing strong, mutually beneficial partnerships

Encompass both business-to-customer and business-to-business routes, SLT’s journey embraces diverse stakeholder groups including B2C which includes individuals in urban and rural areas, B2B including organisations, communities, and industries and B2G including health, educational and agricultural sectors. This journey is steered by a three-pronged rudder comprising governance & leadership, People & operations, and data & analytics.

Being a digital lifeline

SLT aims to empower Sri Lankans by providing superior, world-class digital services to the public, radically transforming people’s lifestyles for the better, through digitalisation and the new brand change towards becoming a converged and synergised service provider fulfilling all needs of the customer. The Company made tremendous progress in addressing the digital needs of customers, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. The resilience and performance of SLT’s network and infrastructure have been fundamental to supporting critical public services, breaking down the barriers of isolation for families and keeping citizens online. Through rapid, comprehensive and coordinated response, SLT became the digital lifeline enabling essential services providers to function. The range of innovative communications solutions, using cutting edge AI-based analytics, AI-assisted diagnosis solutions, video collaborative solutions, and mobile health services facilitated containment, identification and testing requirements of the healthcare sector.

The Company maintained the inclusion of concessionary education packages to students and Work-from-Home arrangements whilst launching a special project to empower SMEs through advanced technology and communication. Whilst developing platforms for education and WFH, an array of digital channels that cater to customer services, SmartHome solutions and a trading platform for agriculture products was launched identifying the diverse customer needs. A research and development centre was initiated to fast-track innovations and sustain a consistent streak of success in the market.

Towards an inclusive digital society

SLT spearheads the implementation of the five pillars of digital transformation to realise the Government’s vision of digitising Sri Lanka. Its ambition is to be the national digital partner of the Government by establishing smarter B2G services including health sector and educational services. By providing superior connectivity solutions to majority rural areas in Sri Lanka, SLT continued to make connectivity accessible and affordable to all Sri Lankans. This helped to empower people from all socio-economic strata with the right knowledge to evolve towards a knowledge society and realise the vision of building a citizen centred digital government and digital economy.

Under the National Fibre programme, which is the premium connectivity solution for Sri Lanka, SLT steadily progressed towards its ambitious plan of developing two million Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) ports by 2022. The Company successfully laid out nearly 60,000 km of optical fibre across the entire island, and connected 160,000 FTTH ports during the year to extend the fibre access. With the implementation of FTTH network, and the core transmission network, SLT routes data to its destination within milliseconds providing ultra-fast broadband network with the lowest latency. The FTTH 1 Gbps ultra speed network has elevated customer experience to greater heights. This fibre network serves as the backbone for fixed broadband and mobile services, including 5G. SLT’s National Tier III Data Centre, located in Pitipana is envisaged in line with the Governments plan for National Cloud and Data Centre infrastructure to accelerate the digital transformation.

SLT also launched Sri Lanka’s first ultra-speed National wide Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing

(DWDM) fibre optic backbone transmission network (NBN). This facilitates access to sophisticated ICT solutions, helping to convert households into SMART hubs, through higher bandwidth and seamless high-speed connectivity. SLT is the only ICT solutions provider with multiple global connectivity options. In tandem with the development of national backbone, SLT increased the capacity of global connectivity to facilitate the expected exponential traffic growth and provide a high speed-connectivity experience. The Company provides telecom networks and ICT services to other communications operators, internet service providers, and public sector institutions to enhance their services through the connectivity options. The LGN has already demonstrated the efficiency gains of digital government, enabling citizens to reap the benefits of this infrastructure through the digitisation of several government services.

Elevating the global position

SLT looks beyond the borders of
Sri Lanka to sustain the long-term growth and boost the return on investment. To position itself in the global market as a true global carrier, SLT launched Xyntac, to cater to the evolving global market requirements through voice, data and cloud based services along with innovative digital services. Ranked among global ISP giants, Xyntac provides highly scalable transport speeds up to multiples of 100 Gbps, through the networks spanning across continents. The network is exclusive, secure, and provides unmatched reliability. During the year, Xyntac expanded its footprint into the west-coast of USA, providing internet-centric businesses and organisations direct access to high-performance IP solutions needed for content, online video, hosting, gaming and other bandwidth-intensive applications.

The investment in the new SEA-ME-WE 6 cable, has elevated Sri Lanka’s global connectivity capacity to the next level and made SLT ready to provide voice and data services along with innovative digital services to cater the evolving global market requirements. Having established business hubs in established global markets, SLT will enter emerging markets to help them to realise growth in the long-term.

Diversified growth through new technologies

To support the Company’s digital transformation and support Government’s national digital vision for Sri Lanka, SLT adopted to new ways of working, developed digital talent and skills, and set up an agile operating model focused on digital marketing and sales, modern technology architecture, automation and artificial intelligence (‘AI’) in customer operations and shared services.

The Company’s Big Data Strategy is geared to create further value through an Application Protocol Interface (API) strategy and partner ecosystem that will help to create new business models and opportunities. Utilising these technologies, organisations are able to boost the quality and reliability of their products and services whilst lowering operational costs. These technologies can transform internal processes such as report automation, data services configuration automation, customer registration in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, and more. Even as Financial Technology (FinTech) companies play a key role is Sri Lanka’s digital transformation, SLT use technologies such as blockchain to facilitate reliable financial transactions.

Partnering for success

Over the years, SLT has facilitated national economic growth and development by launching countless initiatives and partnerships to support individuals, organisations, professional bodies, schools, and hospitals. The sustainable ecosystem of partnerships built by SLT with local and international business entities and service providers enable the Company to develop industry vertical applications, offering network infrastructure connectivity with the hosting environment.

Despite the unforeseen challenges in 2020, SLT remained resilient and committed to providing unparalleled connectivity solutions to enhance the lives of Sri Lankans. The Company led responsibly, contributing towards the Government’s vision of a digitally inclusive Sri Lanka connecting government establishments into a single unified network under the LGN project and created government service layers to develop and expand citizen services. By partnering global players such as Microsoft, Oracle, Citrix, and VMware, SLT brings cloud services to Sri Lanka through its data centres and fibre connectivity.

SLT Group continue to be key enablers contributing to a digitally inclusive Sri Lanka providing ICT infrastructure and system integrator solutions, IPTV services and content creation facilities, tertiary educational services, healthcare channelling platform, digital marketing solutions, human resources solutions, directory services, property management and submarine cable maintenance. Xyntac and the Galle Submarine Cable Depot expanded SLT’s presence in the global arena, generating increased foreign exchange revenue. SLT Campus has raised Sri Lanka’s academic profile globally and continued to earn foreign revenue by attracting foreign students, by running a technology enabled active learning platform even though the lockdown period. Partnering leading Sri Lankan firms, SLT empowered the SME sector which is considered as one of the most strategic sectors in the economy of the country, with advanced technology and communication solutions.