Transforming towards broadband Sri Lanka

The rollout of broadband in Sri Lanka was pioneered by the country’s national telecommunications provider, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), which counts over 300,000customers in the country for its fixed broadband service. Also the company played a crucial and significant role as the infrastructure facilitator for the country’s mobile broadband boost. Over the years, SLT has been able to add value to its broadband facility, thereby enhancing user experience.

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Understanding and delivering the right customer experience has been critical to the retention of customers and expansion of business across the island. Despite being a mammoth organisation and a large scale employer, the company demonstrates agility in the manner in which it has deployed world class broadband technology.

SLT Broadband has had a positive impact on the economic development by boosting economic activities and by connecting Sri Lanka to the rest of the world. It has been the key driver of Sri Lanka’s quest to be the most advanced ICT developed country in the region. By boosting the penetration of ICT into rural areas, SLT has been directly & indirectly responsible for job creation and knowledge enhancement. Currently, the company’s deployment of next generation products and services have enabled a host of online applications such as e-commerce, e-learning, e-governance, telemedicine and so on, which has enhanced capabilities, governance and benefitted millions of citizens.
Brand new identity to serve future generation
Recently, the company rejuvenated its corporate image with a new corporate brand identity that combined an emotional platform with a unified stance for development. SLT’s vision for the country is reflected in brand identity of ‘One Country. One Voice’ brand theme. While all corporate branding was changed to reflect the portrayal of values, togetherness and a singular vision, the company also analysed the future journey of its products and services and aligned its offering to the future expectations of customers.
Broadband to suit lifestyles and needs
While the market embraced SLT’s superior broadband platform with enthusiasm, the company remained committed to enhancing the user experience at regular intervals. The company has carefully designed its broadband packages to suit every lifestyle and needs. New packages with higher data volumes and high speeds, allowed users to select download speeds of 2Mbps, 4Mbps, 8Mbps and 16Mbps. Volume based packages were also introduced to improve users’ internet experience with data volumes starting 2.5GB to 300GB per month. In keeping with its vision to provide affordable services for all, the company introduced discounted Night Time (Off-peak) Broadband Offers from January, 2012 with additional free usage volume 1GB to 100GB.
On-demand bandwidth and Broadband usage meter facility
SLT has kept its finger on the pulse of customer needs and added ‘Bandwidth On Demand’, which enables users to request additional volume with same speed by simply calling SLT Call Centre through charge free 1212 hotline, once threshold limits were reached. The objective was to offer a wide variety of broadband experiences to suit different needs of consumers.
The Company offers internet users the Broadband usage meter facility (www.slt.lk/broadband) which enables internet users to monitor their broadband usage, which will help them to remain within the broadband data limit for a definite period according to the packages they are using. All SLT Broadband package users have this facility through which they can enter their Internet login username and corresponding password and view their data usage and manage their budgets and data volumes each month.
Triple-play platform
The company interlinked the broadband platform with existing services to devise SLT Megaline which was launched with Single Play (Telephone only), Double Play (Telephone and Broadband/PeoTV) and Triple Play (Telephone, Broadband and PeoTV) positioning ‘One line offering three unique experiences’. SLT’s internet protocol enabled PeoTV services offered customers a reliable platform to enjoy the best of local and international news and entertainment from around the world at a click of a button, thereby revolutionising traditional television viewing with characteristic features such as digital quality pictures, Time Shifted TV, Rewind TV to play pause live TV and Video on Demand with content such as movies, music, educational shows and more.
TV banking on PeoTV
Not content to rest on its laurels, the company added the ground-breaking TV Banking option on PeoTV, another first, together with one of Sri Lanka’s fastest growing banks, Union Bank. TV Banking is a novel banking portal that facilitates online banking services using the TV as an interface. Any of PEO TV’s 55,000 plus customers who also bank with Union Bank can avail themselves of this amazing service.
Broadband enhancements
The broadband journey that SLT has embarked on has been path-breaking and pioneering in equal measure. Looking back at the odyssey, there are some clear milestones:
No. 1 ISP in the country to provide dedicated (free of bandwidth contention) broadband for its customers
Introduction of 16Mbps high speed package to the broadband market in the country
Launched ‘Happy Broadband New Year’ annual promotional campaign with many offers
Major enhancements done for the volume based users by increasing download speeds from 512Kbps to 2Mbps
Substantial upgrades in international internet backbone capacity by increasing to over 20Gbps total bandwidth
Delivered up to 135% average automatic speed increase and a significant increase in free data usage at no extra charge
Introduced 4-port WiFi routers at a very special price to facilitate with limited mobility for broadband customers
Bringing mobility with WiFi
Promoting wireless internet access over Home/Office WiFi by bringing increased flexibility customers to adopt company’s flagship product, ‘SLT Broadband’. The company is adept at gauging and adopting best in class telecom developments taking place around the world. Social media is gaining ground as one of the vital modes of communication globally and SLT has also kept in step by garnering over 1 million active Facebook subscribers in Sri Lanka. Further, WiFi enabled Smartphones and SmartTabs are demonstrating a considerable demand for WiFi access and the company is alert to this growing market segment.
Deploying Futuristic Technology – Next Generation Network
The introduction of broadband has forever transformed the manner in which people conduct their personal and professional lives. Evolving lifestyles have created the need for High speed internet, Video on demand & Time Shift TV, seamlessly fitting in with today’s hectic schedules. SLT’s reliable and cost effective broadband service also aspired to access emerging social media, cloud services, eCommerce and mCommerce, all areas which will witness rapid growth over the next few years.
Along with the plethora of unique broadband services being offered by the company, its success lies in its heavy investment in network modernisation and improving capacity. SLT’s Next Generation Network implementation includes converging all access networks into a singular platform, which lies at the core of its Next Generation Network (NGN) strategy. Shedding historic legacy platforms which are cumbersome and expensive, will bring about cost savings, improved efficiencies, faster service delivery, increased speed and performance and new capabilities for future services.
The company is currently in the process of implementing NGN Phase four, which commenced in 2011 and when completed in 2013 will serve an additional 600,000 customers on the NGN platform. The explosive growth and demand for high speed Broadband bodes well for SLT’s investments in infrastructure and its marketing plans too have been integrated to ensure that NGN benefits can be delivered island wide.
Working tirelessly to ensure that the citizens do not suffer from lack of broadband advances, SLT demonstrated that its Backbone Network (SBN) could meet the requirements of the TRCSL’s (Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka) National Backbone Network requirements. SBN is now truly national with an ultra modern fibre network now covering 100% of the 168 electorates around the country and given its wholesale characteristics, conforms ideally to the company’s wholesale business strategy. SLT’s internet protocol (IP) technology will bring multiple services over the single connection.
i-Sri Lanka Project
SLT launched the i-Sri Lanka project in 2011 to enhance and upgrade the existing fixed access network, by expanding the fibre network through FTTN (Fiber to the Node) deployment. By reducing the copper cable length, reliability is improved as are quality and broadband data speeds. Fully integrated into the NGN Modernisation Program, believes that the growth and strong market share in Broadband is evidence that i-Sri Lanka is adding the required foundation for future plans. This will ensure that SLT’s quality and range of services remain on par with developed countries, a definite competitive edge in the current context. The i-Sri Lanka program targets a broadband data speed of up to 20Mbps within a two km copper cable length, with a plan to achieve this for more than 90% of our fixed customers by the end 2013.
Eventually, the company aims to ensure homes and businesses receive ultra high speed internet and high quality PeoTV services, to connect unconnected homes and businesses with high speed broadband and PeoTV facility while supporting businesses to grow and enhance business capabilities via superior broadband services.
Demonstrating corporate stewardship
The company is an ideal corporate citizen, simultaneously supporting the broader national ICT vision by partnering government initiatives aimed at creating an enabling ICT environment. By popularising broadband services in Sri Lanka, SLT aims to boost national GDP, support online education initiatives such as connecting universities (LEARN), connecting schools (SchoolNet) and vocational training institutes, National Online Distance Education Service (NODES) and Rural ICT centres (Nenasala).
SLT has rendered yeoman’s service to the nation by establishing superior ICT communications and transforming businesses through the deployment of high speed broadband.
The company sustains its position as the largest investor towards the economic development of the country.  It holds the distinction of being the single largest telecommunication company in the country, investing billions of rupees to build telecommunications infrastructure in Sri Lanka for the future requirements.
In 2011, the SLT Group was infused with a significant capital investment which was focused on its NGN, capacity enhancement and fixed network modernisation program and mobile network expansions, and other investments for the future. Projects like i-Sri Lanka require immediate and significant investment, as do network modernisation, increasing fixed and mobile Broadband capacity and coverage, expansion of fibre aggregation and access networks.
SLT’s plan for 2012 will see yet another significant capital infusion, as it continues its dynamic journey. SLT will invest Rs. 25 billion during this year towards the expansion of both SLT and Mobitel as well as to expand their network infrastructure. Company would invest Rs. 17.5 billion for SLT, the highest ever capital infusion in the history of the company and the balance would be invested on Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel.