SLT, Dial launch 4G just as Etisalat introduced 3.75G: Lankan telcos in race to break broadband speed

9-May-2011

Earlier it was a price war, but now mobile telecommunication companies are racing to deliver faster broadband speeds.

Just one day after Etisalat launched its 3.75 generation broadband network, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC’s (SLT) Mobitel and Dialog Axiata PLC (Dial) announced that they had conducted successful trials on fourth generation (4G) LTE networks, breaking broadband speed records for the first time in South Asia, they both claimed.

Both SLT and Dial both announced last Friday that they had carried out successful trials in 4G technology, which means Etisalat’s 3.75G network would be slightly behind.

While Etisalat is promising speeds up to 21mbps with a capacity to reach 42mbps through its 3.75G network, SLT says its 4G network could deliver up to 96mbps in downlink and 49mbps in uplink using LTE technology.

"Having launched the first Super-3.5G HSPA network in South Asia in December 2007, and subsequently carried out a trial of HSPA+, MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) with downlink speeds of up to 28mbps in 2009, another first in the region, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel has broken the speed barrier even further to demonstrate broadband speeds of

up to 96mbps in downlink and 49mbps in uplink using LTE technology, and setting another record in the region for the third consecutive time," the telco said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Dial’s pilot network will initially cover several key zones within the city. It said its trials achieved data speeds in excess of 100mbps in indoor demonstration mode, and 40-50mbps in outdoor mobile usage scenarios within the city.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission is monitoring these broadband speeds to ensure consumers get value for money and that broadband speeds are within the advertised range.

A recent price-war left many of the telcos bleeding.