Reiterating its leadership in innovative broadband deployment solutions, SLT-MOBITEL, the National ICT Solutions Provider was honoured with the prestigious ‘Technology Excellence Award for Network and Broadband – Telecommunications’ at The Asian Technology Excellence Awards 2022. The recognition is in appreciation of SLTMOBITEL’s innovative use of LTE 850MHz broadband solution which provides extensive coverage to rural areas of the country.
Understanding the need to provide superior rural connectivity to support the nation’s ongoing digital transformation and bridgingn the digital divide, SLT-MOBITEL’s innovative LTE 850MHz network strategically combined the underutilized spectrum from obsolete CDMA fixed line operations and forfeited its resources to obtain a new noninterfered 5MHz band for 4G LTE deployment from The
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL). This enabled, SLT-MOBITEL to significantly enhance rural connectivity across Sri Lanka, empowering every Sri Lankan to avail the benefit of SLT-MOBITEL’s Sub1GHz 850MHz LTE network especially during Covid-19 travel restrictions where broadband had become a necessity for everyone. In addition, SLTMOBITEL’s LTE 850MHz solution recovered valuable national spectrum resources which was interfered and exhausted earlier. With the coverage enhancement the mobile arm was able to connect an additional 700,000 subscribers who did not have access to broadband services earlier. With the LTE 850MHz deployment, SLT-MOBITEL was able to further bolster its support during COVID-19, providing rural communities especially the school children, people who worked from home and national authorities to immediately respond to Covid-19 emergency situations, thereby narrowing Sri Lanka’s digital divide