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 32.76 million connections in 2019. Among them were 30.28 million 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 34% of all residents have access to the Internet. Approximately 7% 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

The following diagrams show the development of the different 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 subscription.


Spread of internet connections in Sri Lanka 1990 - 2017




Broadband internet in Sri Lanka 2001 - 2018




Landlines in the years 1990 - 2018




Mobile phones in Sri Lanka 1990 - 2018