Broadband service needs standard

The download speeds recorded by the TRCSL during February has shown a mixture of results in fixed and mobile broadband services a press release issued by the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said.

These tests were conducted in remote locations except for the fixed broadband services which were conducted at the Broadband Monitoring Unit (BMU) at TRCSL. The mobile broadband services based on HSPA technology were tested in five remote locations within the Colombo city.

A comparison shows an overall improvement in broadband speeds. However some tests conducted in remote areas have shown that download speeds of mobile broadband has dropped to an unacceptable level which is far below the speeds advertised by the operators.

A network infrastructure, inadequate to meet the demand is the reason for this situation.In terms of international best practices, the mobile broadband based on 3G would not be an ideal replacement or a substitute over other broadband technologies. However, the affordability and convenience in HSPA broadband has change this situation in Sri Lanka.

Subscribers would prefer to use HSPA broadband because of many advantageous it offers to the user. This trend is a challenging task for 3G broadband operators.

The test results have shown this condition in many test locations. The speeds have dropped below the level of 1Mbps (red line) and even reaches the values as low as 100kbps.