Sri Lankan wireline users rise 4.4% year-on-year, internet usage up 166%

Data published by Sri Lanka’s Central Bank says that the country’s wireline subscriber base – based on copper PSTN connections, excluding fixed-wireless services – is continuing to rise, reaching 918,000 at end-June 2011, up by 4.4% year-on-year. CDMA-based fixed-wireless services claimed 2.68 million subscribers at the same date, up 2.5% year-on-year, giving an overall fixed line total of 3.60 million which, according to end-2010 data from TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database, represents just a 0.5% increase in six months. GlobalComms adds that cellular mobile customers in Sri Lanka increased by 5.3% in the same six-month period to 18 million. Meanwhile, according to the Central Bank’s data, internet subscribers in the country shot up by 166% in a year to reach 692,000 at the end of June 2011. National incumbent PSTN operator Sri Lanka Telecom this week announced the launch of a new phase of a major fibre-optic connectivity project for the island’s northern areas.