Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="6h057" data-source="post: 31188708" data-attributes="member: 587218"><p><h3>1. The High Cost of International Bandwidth</h3><p>Sri Lanka is an island nation connected to the rest of the world via undersea fiber optic cables (such as the SEA-ME-WE cables).</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>The Import Model:</strong> ISPs in Sri Lanka do not own the internet; they have to purchase bandwidth from global providers. This cost is incurred in US Dollars.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Volume Costs:</strong> This is not a fixed cost; it is volume-based. The more data users consume, the more the ISP has to pay upstream. If a small percentage of users downloads terabytes of data using “truly unlimited” plans, it skews the economics, making it impossible for the ISP to pay the upstream bills without charging everyone much higher rates.</li> </ul><h3>2. Currency Depreciation and Economy</h3><p>This is a major factor specific to countries like Sri Lanka.</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>The Dollar Trap:</strong> ISPs earn revenue in Sri Lankan Rupees (LKR) but pay for bandwidth and equipment in US Dollars (USD). When the LKR depreciates (as it has significantly in recent years), the cost of importing bandwidth skyrockets.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Inability to Absorb Cost:</strong> In developed economies, ISPs might absorb the cost of heavy users because they have massive cash reserves. In Sri Lanka, margins are thinner, and currency fluctuation makes providing “all-you-can-eat” data financially risky.</li> </ul><h3>3. The “Heavy User” Problem (Network Congestion)</h3><p>Internet bandwidth is a shared resource.</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>The 1% Rule:</strong> Statistics consistently show that a small percentage of users (often heavy downloaders, torrenters, or streamers) consume a vast majority of the total bandwidth.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Shared Infrastructure:</strong> In Sri Lanka, the “last mile” infrastructure (the cables coming to your house or the mobile towers) has a limited capacity. If 10 users on a single street are streaming 4K video 24/7 on a truly unlimited plan, the entire street’s internet slows down.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>FUP as a Traffic Control:</strong> Fair Usage Policies (FUP) are implemented not just to save money, but to kick the heaviest users down to lower speeds so that the remaining 90% of users can browse and stream at acceptable speeds.</li> </ul><h3>4. Low ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)</h3><p>The price Sri Lankans are willing (or able) to pay for internet is much lower than in developed nations.</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Price Sensitivity:</strong> The market is highly competitive and price-sensitive. If an ISP were to offer a truly unlimited plan for, say, LKR 10,000 ($30) to cover their costs, most customers would switch to a competitor offering a 100GB cap for LKR 2,500 ($8).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Volume Game:</strong> ISPs rely on volume—getting millions of users on small, affordable plans—rather than getting a few users on expensive, premium unlimited plans.</li> </ul><h3>5. Lack of Domestic Peering and Content Caching</h3><p>In countries with better internet, a lot of traffic stays “local” (domestic peering). Netflix, YouTube, and Apple have servers *inside* those countries, so local ISPs don’t have to pay to send that data across the ocean.</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Limited Caching:</strong> While Sri Lanka is improving (with the likes of SLTIX and local Google caches), a significant portion of content still has to be fetched from servers in Singapore or Europe. Every time you load a webpage or stream a video that isn’t cached locally, it costs the ISP money in international transit fees.</li> </ul><h3>6. Mobile vs. Fixed Broadband Constraints</h3><p>Much of Sri Lanka’s internet usage is via mobile (4G/5G).</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Spectrum Scarcity:</strong> Mobile towers have a finite amount of spectrum (airwaves). There is a hard physical limit to how much data a single tower can handle at once. Truly unlimited mobile data would cause immediate network congestion (call drops and slow loading) for everyone connected to that tower. Fixed-line fiber (like SLT or Dialog Fiber) handles congestion better, but is still bound by the international bandwidth costs mentioned above.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>

Verification: Hata thunen beduwama keeyada? (60 bedeema thuna)

Top Bottom