Fast Links

Sept 05, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Telecom, the island's dominant fixed phone operator, has increased bandwidth to accommodate rapidly growing high-speed broadband ADSL connections and plans a further expansion by December, an official said. But SLT cannot give telecom service level agreements (SLAs) guaranteeing ADSL performance as many factors determining service quality are beyond its control, said Mahinda Herath, General Manager of Regulatory Affairs, Sri Lanka Telecom.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRC) had allowed SLT to continue giving new connections after demanding a halt owing to complaints of poor service quality that emerged with a sudden increase in new connections, he said.

The TRC had earlier directed SLT to stop giving new Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) connections after a new, cheaper package offer by the operator led to a sudden increase in customers, and complaints that service quality had deteriorated.

ADSL is a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voice band modem can provide.

Herath said the problem arose as SLT's bandwidth got saturated ahead of a planned expansion by July 15 owing to the rapid