Dialog empowers Colombo as South Asia’s first 4G LTE powered city

Monday, 9 May 2011 00:00 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka’s leading telecom service provider, Dialog Axiata, on Saturday began the fourth generation (4G) LTE pilot network making Colombo as South Asia’s first city to be empowered with the latest standard in the mobile network technology.

Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) Director General Anusha Pelpita officiated at a demonstration of LTE (Long Term Evolution) network capabilities featuring the achievement of data speeds in excess of 100 MBps in indoor demonstration mode, and 40-50 MBps in outdoor mobile usage scenarios within the city.

The in-house demo at Dialog Future World at Darley Road involving a downlink of a HD movie preview from You Tube witnessed by media showed peak of 121 MBps. Thereafter Pelpita also participated in an outdoor demo using a laptop inside a vehicle.

He congratulated Dialog on embarking on the bold initiative of setting up a Pilot LTE network. “Sri Lanka has consistently been at the helm of technology introduction in the region. The TRCSL is very proud to note the achievements of the mobile sector in delivering mobile voice and broadband services to a Sri Lankan consumers on a very affordable basis – this has driven penetration of voice service to close to 80% and broadband services are now enjoying rapid growth.”

He said Dialog’s initiative to set up a Pilot LTE Network – introducing the next generation of broadband technology to the Sri Lankan market will no doubt add further impetus towards the achievement of the Government’s objective of making quality broadband services available to all citizens.

Pelpita said that it was six years ago that Sri Lanka pioneered 3G in South Asia whereas tech giant India was rolling out same only today. “The 4G initiatives yet again puts Sri Lanka in the forefront of mobile technology in South Asia,” he added.

Dialog’s Pilot LTE network has been built in partnership with Huawei Technologies of China and will be used as a platform for the demonstration of LTE capabilities in an urban environment.

Dialog invited users to experience the ultra-fast data speeds delivered via LTE technology at Dialog’s Future World (at Darley Road). The network also provides outdoor coverage across key zones across Colombo Fort, Colombo 2, 3 and 4 and Narahenpita.

Commenting on the company’s initiative to implement a 4G Pilot Network, Dialog Group CEO and Director Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya said: “Dialog is proud to have the opportunity of carrying out an LTE trial in Colombo City. Technology life cycles are shrinking with each successive generation of technology and we are committed to make our network infrastructure compatible with the very latest technology and to provide our customers with network capability on par with the most developed markets in the world.”

“This is just the beginning and with feedback from users as well as support from the TRC we will chart out our plans to roll out 4G commercially,” he added.

Dialog also said the progressive policies of the TRCSL have enabled Sri Lanka to lead the region in this respect. LTE implementations are still in a nascent stage in most markets with terminal (dongle) availability being significantly limited. However, as we have seen in the case of 2G as well as 3G-HSPA, terminal availability cycles are accelerating and there is no doubt that LTE will be a fore-runner among high speed broadband technologies in the years to come. Dialog will build on the learning from the pilot network, to leverage the strengths of LTE technology towards making 4th Generation broadband services available and affordable to our customers from across all parts of Sri Lanka.

In line with its promise to deliver The Future Today, Dialog was the first to roll out a commercial 3G network in South Asia in 2006, and has since advanced its high speed mobile broadband services through the introduction of HSPA and HSPA+ technology evolutions delivering peak speeds of up to 42 MBps. Dialog’s High Speed Mobile Broadband services are available across all key towns and cities in the country and have succeeded in empowering consumers from all provinces of Sri Lanka with affordable broadband services.

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