Telecommunication in Sri Lanka
Compared to the European Union, Sri Lanka is massively lagging behind in the development of telecommunications. Under the country code +94, there were a total of 32.16 m connections in 2020. Among them were 29.73 m million mobile phones, which corresponds to an average of 1.4 per person. In the EU, this figure is 1.2 mobile phones per person.In the expansion of broadband Internet connections, Sri Lanka is back. Around 35% of all residents have access to the Internet. Approximately 9% have their own fast Internet connection, which is at least faster than the previous ISDN (more than 2048 kbit/s).
With about 9,552 webhosts, Sri Lanka is below the world's average by population.
Back to overview: Sri Lanka
Development of telephone and internet connections
With an average download speed of 24.35 Mbit/second for fixed-network broadband internet, Sri Lanka ranked 121st in an international comparison. The upload rate of only 11.26 Mbit/second was significantly lower (136th place). The quality of the Internet, consisting of signal fluctuations (jitter) and latency, is very far ahead at 20th place.In mobile internet, i.e. on tablets and smartphones, Sri Lanka comes 132nd with a download speed of 13.89 Mbit/second. The upload speed of around 7 Mbit was only enough for 131st place.
The "Speedtest Global Index" published regularly by Ookla is based on several million individual measurements in Mai 2021 from 180 countries.
The following diagrams show the development of the various telephone and Internet connections as a percentage of the country's population. Values above 100% mean that, on average, every inhabitant has more than one connection.
Access to the Internet in Sri Lanka from 1990 - 2020
Broadband internet in Sri Lanka 2001 - 2020
Landlines 1990 - 2020
Mobile phones 1990 - 2020
| Distribution in 2020 | Sri Lanka Total | Sri Lanka percent | EU Total | EU percent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internet users | 7.67 m | 35.00 % | 393.46 m | 87.87 % |
| Broadband users | 1.99 m | 9.09 % | 162.67 m | 36.33 % |
| Landlines | 2.43 m | 11.08 % | 159.99 m | 35.73 % |
| Mobile cellulars | 29.73 m | 135.64 % | 541.96 m | 121.03 % |