Data consumption surges 11% despite decline in fixed broadband subscriptions: CAL

• Average Sri Lankan now consumes nearly 15 GB of data monthly
• In 3Q23, SL’s total data consumption reached 1,023,436.9 TB
• Mobile data accounted for nearly 69% of overall data consumed
• WhatsApp leads as most popular platform, used by 63% of population (14.6mn users), followed closely by Facebook (14mn users) and YouTube (13.6mn users)

By Nishel Fernando 

Sri Lanka witnessed an 11 percent increase in data consumption in the first nine months of this year, despite the decline in fixed broadband subscriptions, according to Capital Alliance (CAL) Research. 

Accordingly, the average Sri Lankan now consumes nearly 15GB of data monthly, a figure that continues to rise.
“This number is rising, with the usage already up 11 percent since January,” CAL stated. 

In the third quarter of 2024, the country’s total data consumption reached 1,023,436.9 TB, marking a steady increase from 940,584 TB in 2Q and 892,933 TB in 1Q. Mobile data accounted for nearly 69 percent of the overall data consumed during this period.

Fixed broadband subscriptions declined by around 6 percent by September this year, from 2,686,955 peak in 2022. By the end of September, the figure has fallen to 2,525,650. In contrast, mobile broadband subscriptions experienced a marginal growth of 0.6 percent by September when compared to the end of last year, totalling 20,432,582 subscriptions by September.

Over half of Sri Lanka’s population actively engages in platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube. WhatsApp leads as the most popular platform, used by 63 percent of the population (14.6 million users), followed closely by Facebook (14 million users) and YouTube (13.6 million users).

The increasing data consumption underscores Sri Lanka’s growing reliance on mobile data and digital platforms, despite the decline in fixed broadband subscriptions. 

Meanwhile, fixed access voice telephone subscriptions (excluding fixed data-only plans) showed a significant rebound in 2024, increasing by 26.8 percent from the end of 2022 to September 2024.

As of September, this year, Sri Lanka had 17.7 million smartphones or tablets in use, alongside 7.26 million basic/feature phones, 329,984 dongles/routers and 948,164 other telecommunication devices.