SLT’s 100Mbps super-fast broadband internet goes live

Celebrating World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) last week, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) yesterday announced the soft launch of its VDSL2 (Very-High-Bit-Rate Digital Subscriber Line 2) advanced fixed broadband technology.

The addition of this new technology means the company’s broadband users can expect speeds of up to 100Mbps.

The newly-introduced VDSL2 technology-based fixed broadband, its speed and access capabilities were demonstrated to Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Ranjith Siyambalapitiya in the presence of SLT Group CEO Lalith De Silva and many other top officials. The initial demonstration held at the Sri Lanka Telecom Regional Office in Kegalle recorded data speeds in excess of 90Mbps. SLT has plans to expand the services to other regions as well by upgrading its fixed broadband network in the near future. SLT’s technology leadership continues to revolutionise internet usage across the country whilst expanding Sri Lanka’s broadband capacity, availability and affordability to empower Sri Lankan internet users with consistent, uninterrupted, high-speed broadband internet access with the highest reliability. De Silva said: “The launch of VDSL2 advanced fixed broadband technology at SLT means a boost in broadband speeds of up to 100Mbps. These near-fibre optic levels speeds are unmatched to any other broadband service in the country. This is certainly a welcome upgrade in our stride, considering that the Global Networked Readiness Index (NRI) ranks Sri Lanka only behind India in the SAARC region.

“A recent ITU report also refers to Sri Lanka’s as having a ‘very dynamic broadband market’. Global mentions such as these are quite significant and are signs that we are surely working towards bridging the digital divide in the country. It is very exciting to be a part of the development of the broadband industry in Sri Lanka and SLT will continue to keep working towards transforming the ICT landscape of the country. Upgrading the existing ADSL-based broadband customer experience up to this level is definitely a remarkable achievement by SLT.” VDSL2 operates over copper lines, just like ADSL and ADSL2+ technologies do, to deliver high speed internet. However, it has more capabilities which can deliver amazing broadband performance while delivering triple-play services of telephone, broadband and Peo TV. VDSL2 is the fastest of the DSL provisions of broadband, and uses a combination of nodes and existing copper telephone cables to provide the highest available frequency of DSL.

VDSL2 can achieve incredible speeds, as high as up to 100Mbps downstream theoretically. This is much faster than ADSL and ADSL2+ technologies providing up to 16 Mbps downstream at present around the country.

De Silva further stated: “Today, the need for more bandwidth is driven by the user’s willingness to access bandwidth-hungry applications like high-definition video delivered over the internet to an increasing number of devices including laptops, connected TVs, smartphones and tablets. While fibre is the best broadband bearer for high speeds, copper still has a lot to offer broadband users.”

Telecommunication companies around the world are increasingly replacing many of their core networks and access networks with fibre-optics, hence the reason behind operators choosing to deploy VDSL2 access technology. In fact, many companies have Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) in the pipeline. This will replace all existing copper lines right up to the point where the telephone line branches off at the user location.

Another option that companies are looking at implementing is Fibre-to-the-Neighbourhood/Node (FTTN). Instead of installing fibre-optic cables along each street, FTTN has fibre going to the main junction box to a particular neighbourhood. This is the very same network architecture SLT has deployed for its ongoing network modernisation projects such as ‘i-Sri Lanka’ (access network) and the Next Generation Network (NGN) – the core network.