South Asia’s First 4.5G Demo Clocks 1Gbps on Dialog’s LTE Network

(From left) Navin Pieris – Head of Business Broadband, Pradeep De Almeida – Group Chief Technology Officer of Dialog Axiata, Azwan Khan – Group Chief Operating Officer of Dialog Axiata, Shunli Wang – CEO of Huawei Sri Lanka, Vasabha Bulathsinhala – Deputy CEO, Huawei Sri Lanka at South Asia’s first 4.5G demonstration.

Sri Lanka established yet another milestone on the region’s Broadband Technology landscape today with an exposition of South Asia’s first 4.5G demonstration featuring download speeds in excess of 1Gbps (Gigabits per Second).

The ground breaking technology capability test was carried out on the Huawei Technologies’ LTE infrastructure of Dialog Axiata, the country’s leading 4G Network Provider. The demonstration established the capability of the network to deliver throughputs in excess of 1 Gbps on the LTE Radio (Air) Interface, setting a solid foundation for the future evolution of the nation’s 4G services to a technology generation well ahead of neighboring markets.

Following the 4.5G technology capability test, Sri Lanka joins a select circle of 20 Countries where 4.5G capabilities have been demonstrated.

In 2014, Sri Lanka became the first country in South Asia to Launch Commercial 4G services, when Dialog Axiata launched its pioneering 4G services on FD-LTE and TD-LTE technologies. Dialog’s 4G LTE networks have since evolved to deliver burst speeds up to 100 MBps and provides a population coverage in excess of 50% with respect to ultra-high speed 4G services. Following aggressively in the footsteps of the company’s 3G-HSPA network which provides a population coverage in excess of 83%, Dialog’s 4G LTE Services are expected to provide ultra high speed broadband coverage to all populated areas of the country in the near future.

The ITU names Sri Lanka as exhibiting the lowest broadband tariffs in the Asia Pacific Region, while Akamai, in its report of ‘State of the Internet – Connectivity’ points to Sri Lanka leading the region if not the world in terms of the affordability, availability, quality and inclusivity of broadband services.