Sri Lanka has witnessed an 11 percent increase in data consumption during the first nine months of 2024, according to Capital Alliance (CAL) Research, despite a decline in fixed broadband subscriptions. On average, each Sri Lankan now consumes nearly 15GB of data monthly, a figure that continues to grow.
Data consumption in the third quarter of 2024 reached a total of 1,023,436.9 TB, marking a steady rise from the 940,584 TB consumed in Q2 and 892,933 TB in Q1. Mobile data accounted for nearly 69 percent of this total, emphasizing the country’s growing reliance on mobile broadband.
Meanwhile, fixed broadband subscriptions saw a decline of around 6 percent, dropping from a peak of 2,686,955 in 2022 to 2,525,650 by the end of September 2024. In contrast, mobile broadband subscriptions grew marginally by 0.6 percent, reaching 20,432,582 by September.
The rise in data consumption coincides with the increasing engagement of Sri Lanka’s population on digital platforms. Over half of the population actively uses WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube, with WhatsApp leading as the most popular platform, used by 63 percent of the population (14.6 million users), followed by Facebook (14 million users) and YouTube (13.6 million users).
Despite the drop in fixed broadband subscriptions, the increasing data consumption highlights Sri Lanka’s growing dependence on mobile data and digital services. Additionally, fixed access voice telephone subscriptions (excluding data-only plans) saw a significant increase of 26.8 percent from the end of 2022 to September 2024.
As of September 2024, Sri Lanka had 17.7 million smartphones or tablets in use, along with 7.26 million basic phones, 329,984 dongles/routers, and 948,164 other telecommunication devices.
