Fixed telephones soaring to two million mark

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

CONNECTIONS: The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (T.R.C.S.L) estimates that fixed telephones would exceed the 2 million mark by the end of this year. There had been 1,895 675-fixed line connections by the end of 2006.

One of the key reasons for this growth is the introduction of CDMA to the local network, which has created a sudden surge of connections, an offcial of the TRC said.

In addition to both Suntel and Lanka Bell, Sri Lanka Telecom too was given the licence to operate CDMA and they too provided connections to rural areas.

The mobile phones which were introduced in 1990, too have shown a sharp increase and by the end of last year it had a subscriber base of 5,412,496. The mobile penetration per 100 people is 27.1 percent and this is a very high penetration rate.

The mobile subscribers in 2005 was 3,361,775. Pay phones networks, which were introduced, nearly a decade ago in a more organised manner too are helping to increase tele density in the country and by the end of last year than had passed the 7,500 mark.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had said that he is keen to increase Sri Lanka’s ICT penetration, which is very low and Internet has been introduced to schools as one way to increase ICT knowledge.

By the end of last year Internet and E-mail users had risen to 130,000 from a 40,497 in 2000.

The industry has also been providing more employment opportunities and by the end of last year 12, 919 were employed.