Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) is investing $ 50 million for the laying of the latest undersea cable system, a project contracted by the US company SubCom, as the telecommunication provider is planning of converting existing data centres into data farms to provide data storage for international companies, SLT Group Chairman Rohan Fernando said.
Speaking in an interview with TV Derana on Sunday (19), Fernando said that SLT is investing around $ 50 million of its own funds for the installation of the new Southeast Asia-Middle EastWestern Europe 6 (SEA-ME-WE 6) done by SubCom to create an islandwide digital platform for the judiciary, health services, education sector, traffic systems, and Police.
Further, he said that four data centres owned by SLT, which are currently providing offshoring data storage for companies such as Amazon and Microsoft, will be upgraded to data farms to attract more companies to Sri Lanka.
He added that Sri Lanka would be an ideal place for a data farm as the country is politically as well as geographically stable, considering Sri Lanka is not situated on tectonic plates.
However, he said that the only issue the country has is regarding continuous power supply and added that although there are backup power plants, power is the only thing that is of concern in activating the fourth level of data storage (which is Site Level) for all companies
Further, Fernando said since taking office as chair in 2020, SLT has been able to reduce its overall debt from Rs. 53 billion to Rs. 36 billion in two years utilising its own revenue.
Last Friday (17), SLT financial statements for the financial year 2022 showed that the SLT Group has posted an overall growth with annual revenue surpassing Rs. 100 billion once again, recording Rs. 108 billion for the financial year 2022.
The company noted that this resulted in the Group recording a revenue increase of 5.2% for the financial year 2022, strengthened by a healthy bottom line of Rs. 4,765 million profit after tax, enabling the company to deliver on commitments to stakeholders against a backdrop of unprecedented macroeconomic and industry challenges.
With this news, the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) yesterday (20) saw investors gathering on SLT shares as it recorded a Rs. 174 million turnover with a trade volume of over 1,000. The shares gained by 10.74% to Rs. 79.40 and the market cap increased by Rs. 13.8 billion.