"Even though some had offered very high speeds on mobile broadband they could only offer a fraction of it."
Digital Divide
LIRNEasia has ongoing research on South Asian broadband services, where data is collected every six months. Wattegama said quality has improved since the study started in 2007.
High speed internet connectivity in Sri Lanka is offered by fixed line operator Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), its subsidiary, celco Mobitel and Dialog Telekom, another celco owned by Axiata of Malaysia.
The research showed that by March 2008, Sri Lanka's two main broadband operators could only deliver 20 percent of the two mega bytes per second (mbps) marketed.
"Dialog said they had just started (2008) Wimax services to customers and hence needed more time to improve the service. SLT said they were bleeding, paying for international bandwidth."
Improving Outlook
LIRNEasia research showed that the quality of the broadband has improved since then.
"From March 2009 to October 2009 we have found there is an improvement in broadband quality from the two main players," Wattegama said.
"We have seen the 20 percent downloading speeds given in 2002 had improved 40 to 50 percent by October 2009."
India had faced similar problems in the past, prompting the regulator to ask service providers to advertise only the minimum download speed, speakers at the Chennai forum said.
Customers should always read the fine print before signing up to take connections. If not consumers think they have been cheated after sometime, said Timothy Gonsalves, professor of the department of computer science and engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
"What we say is they advertise for two mbps and give only 50 percent of that," Wattegama said.
"Why can't they advertise for one mbps? Then this problem won't be there."
International Bottleneck
LIRNEAsia says broadband providers in Sri Lanka like their counterparts in other South Asian countries had focused mainly on the last mile connectivity of the network.
The 'last mile' is the final leg of the distribution network, from a communications provider to a customer.
Sri Lanka broadband providers' last mile connectivity runs at 75 percent, which is quite good, Wattegama said.
But speeds are slow because they have not invested adequately on international broadband capacity, Wattegma said.
Acquiring international bandwidth is expensive business and has to be supported by high-end routers and servers.
"In North America broadband speeds are more uniform due to bigger routers and better network management," said Gonsalves of the Indian Institute of Technology.
"In Asian countries connectivity is better in the morning and evening, while at office hours speeds are poor."
Wattegama said SLT had complained that 90 percent of their costs went to acquire international bandwidth.
"They said without increasing the tariff structure on broadband they couldn't provide better quality," he said.
Foreign Hosting
A local website mostly viewed by domestic surfers, requires minimal international bandwidth.
But 95 percent of Sri Lankan web portals are hosted in remote locations such as the US due to higher hosting costs at home, Gonsalves said.
The US needs fewer backup systems, their infrastructure is good, energy costs are cheaper allowing American firm to "offer more for less", he said.
"The quotations I got to host the LIRNEasia website from a domestic service provider was 400 US dollars a month," Wattegama said.
"For the same service a US provider quoted half that amount for the entire year. So it’s a no brainer."
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