Telephone availability in Sri Lanka is poor with waiting lists running into years in some areas. Most of the telephone exchanges use archaic technology, creating congestion at peak hours. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka estimates Sri Lanka's phone density at 0.93 per 100 people for a population of 18 million and with demand for fixed phones at nearly 282,000.
Sri Lanka allowed cellular phones in 1989 after it realized that was the quickest way to provide phones on the island. The island's cellular phone market is growing at 10% to 12% a month. In 1994 the number of cellular phones increased from 3,000 to 23,000 at year end, according to cellular phone firms. Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) planned to install another 275,000 telephone lines, especially in rural areas, by the end of 1995. Analysts say this was far below the earlier target of 500,000 by that year and 800,000 by 2000. Foreign direct investment is urgently needed to help build the telecommunications infrastructure. The state-owned Sri Lanka Telecom, which now has a monopoly on land lines, is unable to expand its network fast enough due to lack of funds. The government plans to invest almost $600 million to improve telecommunications and add 385,600 lines to its existing network of 181,000 fixed lines by 1998. The Sri Lankan government recently unveiled plans for a a major telecommunications development package.
Due to the heavy public investment made in this sector during the last five years, Sri Lanka Telecom has expanded and modernised its service by replacing outdated switching systems and cable networks with modern and powerful digital switching systems. As a result, the capacity of exchanges and the number of direct telephone lines increased sharply and the quality of telephone service has substantially improved since 1993.
The country has started to privatize Telecom services in a bid to improve the telecommunication infrastructure. Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and the Development Finance Corp of Ceylon have won the tender to restructure Sri Lanka's telecommunications industry. The goals are to initially privatize at least 20 percent of Sri Lanka Telecom. The privatization trend should help in improving the telecommunication infrastructure in Sri Lanka.
Submarine cables extend from Sri Lanka to Indonesia and Djibouti. Currently there are two INTELSAT earth stations over Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean. The state owned Ceylinco, has teamed up with COMSAT to Launch Sri Lanka's first satellite services network. The project, which envisages linking Sri Lankan offices and even homes to multiple sources of information via satellite, will be the island's first network to use satellite exclusively, say its promoters, Ceycom Global Communication Ltd., a collaboration of the Ceylinco Group and Comsat Corporation, the major shareholder of the global INMARSAT & INTELSAT satellite networks.
A Rs. 2 billion (US$ 40 m) initial investment, the Ceycom network has promised to provide, in addition to the traditional needs of data and image transmission and Internet services, an exciting array of new applications such as distance education, tele-medicine, video conferencing, private networks and mobile data services will catapult Sri Lanka into a new age of information technology.
US telecom giant, MCI Communications has started commercial service on its TAT-12 fibre optic cable between the USA and Europe and with the system in place MCI can now offer additional fibre optic connectivity to Sri Lanka, Slovakia and Hungary. The TAT-12 is owned by a consortium of over 50 telecommunications carriers from 38 countries and spans 6,500 km in two optical pairs for 300,000 two-way channels.
There are four firms which operate cellular services in Sri Lanka - - MTN Networks (Pvt) Ltd, a joint venture between Telekom Malaysia and Sri Lanka's Maharaja Organization conglomerate, Celltel, Mobitel and Call Link. There are a estimated 30,000 cellular phones on the island.
Ceylinco Group's new project, using a VSAT-based global communications
system in cooperation with COMSAT, USA should improve the telecommunications
infrastructure of Sri Lanka, and do much to expedite the economic situation in the country.
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Last updated on March 6, 1996 by Ms. Nishanthi Mendis
The URL of this page is located at http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/mogit/nm9903a/sri_tele.html