Sri Lanka's Dialog launches 4G fixed broadband services

The cellco said it was using TD-LTE (Time Division - Long Term Evolution) standard technology, with the service offered by its Dialog Broadband Networks (DBN) unit.

"Carrying this lead forward, our LTE network will expand rapidly to cover most towns and cities of Sri Lanka in the near future…," Hans Wijayasuriya chairman, Dialog Broadband Networks (DBN) & Group chief executive Dialog Axiata Plc, said in a statement.

"…[C]onsistent with the revolution we delivered in the mobile telecommunications sector over the past decade, we will deliver the benefits of LTE technology in a form which will be available and affordable to a vast majority of Sri Lankan citizens and businesses."

Dialog said it LTE services has entry level home and office packages starting at 1,400, for a 4Mbps connection burstable to higher speeds, with a 25Giga Byte data allocation.

The connection device allows built in Wi-Fi, four local area network data ports, a US port and an option to connect two voice telephony lines.

Wijayasuriya said the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) has created an environment which encouraged investment in new technology.

"The smooth introduction of the latest generation of telecommunication and broadband services requires consistent forward planning by the TRCSL and I am happy that our efforts have resulted in Sri Lanka’s telecommunications sector delivering high quality and affordable services to Sri Lankan consumers," the statement quoted Anusha Pelpita, Sri Lanka's telecom regulator as saying.

Dialog said its service supports a wide range of wireless devices such as tablets, smart phones laptops and LAN connected devices including, smart TVs and printers and personal computers.

READER COMMENT(S)

7. Podda Apr 01

@Navis:
I live at Malabe. And your network have no 3G coverage to my place. I have made many complaints over the years. But no response.

We have no faith in your network anymore.

@cj:
Guerrilla marketing? :P. It won't work on us though.

@ash:
Your problem is not the network. Replace your dongle and you should get better data rates.

6. Navs Jan 01

Speeds claims such as 42.2 for HSPA + are theoretical maximums.

Although our package promises 4Mbps We haven’t capped the speed you can receive. Depending on network resources available to you, burst speeds in excess of 20Mbps can be reached. We have designed our network to deliver the 4 Mmbps speed as a minimum so as to ensure a delightful internet experience at an affordable price - however speeds can burst to higher levels depending on the number of concurrent users of the network.

The maximum speeds on an LTE network depend largely on the spectrum available for transmission. The TRCSL has done a great job clearing spectrum in the 2300 band. The quantity of spectrum currently available doesn’t permit a network to hit the 100Mbps levels – however with the ongoing efforts of the TRCSL to clear more spectrum for high speed broadband, this will be realizable in the future

5. ash Jan 01

@isuru: Spot on isuru.
Sometimes we will be lucky if we can get a 1bps speed :) The networks just go dead and we have to re-insert the dongal to get some decent bandwitdth....

4. Isuru Jan 01

First Stable the 3G and then go to 4G LTE. Sometime speed go down to 1KB - 5KB :P

3. cj Dec 31

Go for Etisalat , they can provide up to 42mbps even now, i dont think Dialog and Mobitel could fool people like this by announcing that they have launched 4G, i remember they did the same this sometime back but speeds were never deleivered

2. Madhatter Dec 31

I agree that the initial 4Mbps speed is quite a letdown, especially since higher data rates are associated with LTE. I was made to understand that this is the guaranteed data rate- considering that the bandwidth will be shared among users.

However 4G technologies have a lower latency rate than 3G technologies which should allow for better user experience-especially for video chat, gaming etc.

Remains to be seen if they can deliver what they have promised…and maybe upgrade the packages

1. DocK Dec 30

4Mbps (Mega bits per second) is considered 4G speed??? 4G speed minimum should be 100 Mbps to a maximum of 1000Mbps for download and 50Mbps to 100Mbps for upload.

Right now you can get 21Mbps on HSPA (3.75G) networks or 42Mbps on HSPA+. Is Dialog going to guarantee a constant speed of 4Mbps and that is why they are marketing this as 4G-LTE???