Sri Lankan telco Dialog Axiata announced on Thursday it has expanded its 5G trial network across 15 districts nationwide as it gears up for the country’s long-awaited 5G spectrum auction slated for early December.

Dialog Axiata said its 5G trial network is now available in Colombo, Gampaha, Kalutara, Kandy, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Nuwara Eliya, Galle, Matara, Batticaloa, Ampara, Trincomalee, Jaffna, and Kilinochchi, with ongoing expansion into additional urban and rural locations.

“Extending our 5G trials across the country marks another important step in Dialog’s journey to shape Sri Lanka’s digital future,” said Dialog Axiata group CTO Ranga Kariyawasam in a statement.

Dialog has been trialling 5G since 2018, as it and rival SLT-Mobitel (which is also offering 5G on a trial basis) wait for the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) to allocate 5G spectrum, which it has been promising to do since at least 2021.

The spectrum auction process officially kicked off on October 3 when the Ministry of Digital Economy published the Notice of Assignment (NoA) on the final assignment of 5G spectrum – almost a year after the TRCSL issued a consultation notice for auctioning the 3.5-GHz and 27-GHz bands for 5G services in December 2024.

Under the auction timetable published on the TRCSL website, telcos have until November 10 to submit their bids for 100 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5-GHz band and 200 MHz in the 27-GHz band. The final list of approved bidders will be released November 24, and the actual auction will take place on December 3. The auction will close on December 15, by which time the first payment is due.

Earlier this year, Dialog conducted what it claimed was Sri Lanka’s first successful Voice over New Radio (VoNR) trial on a live standalone 5G network. In August, it also launched a low-cost Dialog-branded 5G smartphone made by ZTE priced at LKR35,999 (US$120) to encourage uptake of 5G devices ahead of its eventual commercial launch.