Country overview: Sri Lanka

We are delighted to now offer subscribers access to research the GSMA Intelligence team undertakes in emerging markets and the wider mobile ecosystem, including ‘Mobile for Development’ (M4D). The first report in this area comes from our new series of GSMA Intelligence country overviews, on Sri Lanka. Each report in this series covers a single country and combines data analysis with on-the-ground interviews to understand why a given mobile market has developed as it has, and what the future holds. Covering themes of operator growth and competition dynamics, it provides analysis of indicators affecting adoption and usage, such as network coverage and investment, handsets, mobile data and value added services (VAS).

The report has a particular focus on operator attitudes to investing in VAS that aim to improve people’s lives in verticals such as health, education and finance. These M4D VAS are becoming increasingly important for operators in emerging markets, enabling them to forge customer loyalty with low-income, previously unconnected subscribers. With the projected rise in the number of people using mobile data over the next five years, forming such relationships now will be key to strengthening operators’ place in the data value chain in the future. Featuring an expert interview with Dr Hansa Wijayasuriya, CEO of market leader Dialog, it shows that data and M4D VAS are seen as important components of mobile offerings and are likely to be the subject of growing investment in the years to come.

We hope you enjoy this report and indeed the series. Feedback is welcome as always.