Plentiful Phones - Trends in the use of Cellular Phones

Sri Lanka is evidence of the power of a small handheld device to fulfill many human needs. Mobile phones and the internet are giving people new opportunities they never had before. No wonder Sri Lanka has more mobile phones than the country’s population, showing the widespread ownership of mobile phones nationwide. If we leave aside the young population who don’t own a mobile phone, the adults, it seems, are harnessing the benefits of multiple devices for daily navigation.

- Jennifer Paldano Goonewardane.

With a population of 21.9 million in 2023, Sri Lanka’s mobile phone subscription amounted to 27.9 million at the end of the third quarter of 2023, equal to 127.3 percent of the total population. However, this number reflects a decline of 3.1 percent in comparison to the number at the end of 2022, that is, the fourth quarter of 2022, which stood at 28.8 million mobile phone subscribers. Mobile phone penetration per 100 persons by the third quarter of 2022 stood at 131 (excluding fixed lines), which declined to 126.9 by the third quarter of 2023, a 3.1 percent decline. Meanwhile, internet users increased by 1.3 percent for the third quarter of 2023 to 22 million compared to 21.8 million in the same period in 2022. By the end of 2022, internet subscribers stood at 21.6 million, a two percent decline from the previous year.