Can Sri Lanka’s 5G revolution reach the 80% left behind?

By Hiyal Biyagamage

Roughly 80% of Sri Lanka’s 23 million citizens live outside Colombo and the country’s other major cities. Yet according to DataReportal’s Digital 2026: Sri Lanka report, as of the end of 2025 the country recorded just 13.9 million internet users — a penetration rate of 59.7% — leaving nearly nine million people without access. Fixed broadband connections, meanwhile, barely extend beyond urban centres. For the rural majority, the digital economy remains something that happens elsewhere.

That picture may be about to change. Sri Lanka launched its commercial 5G network in December 2025 following a spectrum auction by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka. For the first time, the country has the infrastructure to deliver broadband-grade internet wirelessly to homes, schools, and businesses in areas where laying fibre cable is either too slow or too expensive to be practical.

The case for wireless broadband has taken on new urgency in Sri Lanka’s current economic climate. With the country navigating fuel shortages that have disrupted daily commutes and pushed both employers and schools toward remote working and online learning, reliable home internet has shifted from a convenience to a necessity. Yet Sri Lanka’s fibre infrastructure, still largely confined to Colombo and a handful of larger towns, leaves the vast majority of the country without the connection that remote work and digital education demand. The answer lies in Fixed Wireless Access, or FWA, which delivers fiber like speeds by transmitting a 5G signal from a tower to a small receiver at a home or business, no cables, no waiting. 

Sri Lanka has already seen this approach work at scale: according to industry 4G and 5G FWA Broadband White Papers, one of Sri Lanka’s local operators 4G FWA rollout between 2013 and 2018 tripled home broadband penetration from 9% to 26%, connecting 800,000 previously unserved households and accounting for 60% of all new home broadband additions over that period. What 4G began, 5G is now positioned to accelerate.

The economic argument for going further is difficult to ignore. According to the GSMA’s Mobile Economy Asia Pacific 2025 report, mobile technologies and services contributed $950 billion to the Asia-Pacific economy in 2024 (5.6% of regional GDP). This is projected to grow to $ 1.4 trillion by 2030 (6.6% of GDP), driven by 5G expansion and related technologies. Globally, the GSMA estimates mobile technologies led by 5G will contribute around $ 11 trillion to the world economy by 2030, with closing the mobile internet gap adding $3.5 trillion between 2023 and 2030.

Other countries have already moved. In the UAE, 5G FWA now handles a substantial portion of broadband traffic (e.g., du reporting 70% of its mobile & FWA traffic over 5G infrastructure in recent years). In Saudi Arabia, fixed wireless access accounts for around one in five broadband connections (approximately 20% of the market as of late 2025), supporting rural schools, clinics, and households. In Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, FWA has been integrated into national strategies for digital agriculture and remote education.

The barriers that remain in Sri Lanka are practical rather than technical: the cost of consumer devices, reliability of electricity supply in rural areas, and the digital literacy needed to turn connectivity into genuine economic participation. With mobile coverage already extending to over 90% of the population and a proven record of wireless broadband deployment, the infrastructure foundation exists. Whether the technology reaches the communities that need it most will depend on the policy and investment decisions made in the months ahead.

In a nation where the majority live beyond major cities, 5G — powered by FWA — has the potential not only to connect homes but to transform livelihoods, education, and the rural economy.