Lanka’s total cost of mobile ownership lowest in the world

Inauguration of the conference. Pictures by Sumanachandra Ariyawansa

In a recent study done by Nokia across 80 emerging markets it had concluded that that Sri Lanka has the lowest total cost of ownership for mobile services.

Sri Lanka’s the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC) has succeeded in ensuring that cost of owning a mobile (total cost of ownership) in Sri Lanka is among the lowest in the world.

Foreign guests at the Huawei technologies stall

This establishes that Sri Lankan mobile operators had reached more depth in low income generating segments than neighboring countries and this fact was reflected in the very low ARPU level of below US$ 4.50 in Sri Lanka, whereas, in India ARPU stood at around US$ 6. (Source TRAI and industry reports).

Successively progressive regulatory decisions by TRC have also enabled Sri Lanka to maintain a consistent lead over South Asian regional counterparts in terms of technology adoption on par with the developed world - Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to deploy GSM services in 1995, GPRS in 2001, 3G in 2006 and 3.5G in 2007.

As Sri Lanka’s mobile telecommunications industry rapidly approaches the milestone of 50% per-capita penetration (38.2% as at 12/2007, TRCSL), incumbent mobile operators (Dialog, Hutch, Mobitel and Tigo) cited fair and consumer centric competition, progressive regulation by (TRCSL), long term and committed investment and accompanying stewardship of the Board of Investment (BoI) as key drivers of their achievement.

While Sri Lanka’s mobile operators through decade long investments have achieved 70% geographic coverage and 90% population coverage, in the very near future one in two Sri Lankan’s would own a mobile phone.

Per-Capita adoption alone outstrips neighboring India by nearly 2 fold- per capita adoption in India being 20.5% as of 12/2007 (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India) signifying the giant strides made by Sri Lanka’s mobile sector in terms of affordability enhancement.

A fair playing field, healthy competition and a Regulator with foresight have contributed in no small measure to industry growth. Sri Lankan consumers have no doubt benefited from the competitive landscape in the islands mobile sector.

Competition has been healthy and delivered not only successive reductions in pricing levels bringing mobile telephony within reach of all segments of Sri Lankan society, but additionally quality services and advanced technologies well ahead of the region.

The Dialog 3G stall

On this backdrop of a near two decade long tradition of healthy competition, the mobile sector is left perturbed by references to anti-competition attributed to new entrant Airtel of India, and reported in Newspapers.

As strong believers in competition and the resulting dividends to consumers and market growth, Sri Lanka’s mobile operators welcome additional competition.

It is also their aspiration that the industry would remain consistent in its focus on quantifiable and real delivery in the best interest of the consumer.

Distractions in the form of inter-operator aspersions in particular those which are misleading can only serve to disrupt an industry which is a regional leader and can serve to undo the good work carried out by regulators and investors alike rather than enable further growth across and beyond the 50% milestone on which the industry and TRCSL is focused upon with much anticipation and excitement.