Lanka has 18m mobile users

Sri Lanka had 18,417 million mobile subscribers at the end of September 2011, with a net addition of 241,000, down from 438,000 in June 2011.

Sri Lankan operators are searching for additional growth drivers to offset the declining subscriber growth opportunities.

Mobile service providers in Sri Lanka are taking steps to increase the number of postpaid users. Companies are also looking at the broadband sector.Mobile broadband adoption is growing rapidly. According to a Sri Lankan telecom regulator, there were 260,000 internet and email subscribers and 120,000 broadband subscribers in the country in September 2010.

The push continued into Q1 2011 and Q2 2011. According to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) the combined internet and mobile broadband subscriber figures increased to 673,000 and 692,000 respectively.

At the end of September 2011, the CBSL said there were 722,000 subscribers.

The momentum coincided with telecom companies' efforts to improve their mobile data networks.

After attracting interest from companies such as Sri Lanka Telecom, Tata Communications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, as well as UAE-based Emirates Telecommunications Corporation in the last few years, Suntel was finally acquired by Dialog Broadband Networks, a subsidiary of Dialog Axiata in December 2011.

-Telecom Lead Asia