Sri Lanka’s national Mobile Service Provider Mobitel will invest US$50 million in 2019 to roll out their 5G network and also add other infrastructure to their network said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd, Nalin Perera.
Mobitel has already stated trials to launch 5G, Perera told the Daily News Business after the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 launch in Colombo last Thursday.
He said that the 5G Data transfer speeds would be 10 times higher than the current 4G which will increase connectivity allowing more people and devices to communicate at the same time. Cell towers equipped with 5G technology would have greatly increased capacity over 4G/LTE.
Sri Lanka was the first country in the South Asian region to introduce 3G, 3.5G (HSDPA), 3.75G (HSUPA) even over India. “However when it comes to 5G many of the other South Asian nations too are ready for it and Sri Lanka would not be the first to implement it.” He said last year too Mobitel invested around US$ 100 million USD to convert around 100 3G stations to 4G. “This process is continuing and Mobitel would be soon dropping our 3G network.”
He said that despite heavy investments for infrastructure and foreign exchange losses they were able to post revenue in the excess of Rs. 3.9 billion last year. “This is 10% year on year increase.”
Perera said that the demand for voice is dropping. “However if you analyze our profits, almost 80% has being generated from voice. But this is declining.”
He also said that revenue gained from all telco operators from IDD calls is almost becoming a zero as internet calls (data) are taking this space. Perera said that today Sri Lanka is still offering the lowest data charges in the world. Mobitel up to 2018 has invested in excess of USD 600 mn worth of investments to-date over their 25 year history.
Source: http://www.dailynews.lk/2019/04/08/features/182498/mobitel-invest-us-50-mn-roll-out-5g-network