New single network for Wifi spots

6 April 2015 01:08 pm

Under the programme of providing free Wifi facility covering all 25 districts in the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Telecommunications and IT will introduce a new single network to access Wifi service without barriers, Information Communications Technology Agency (ICTA) Programme Manager Gavaskar Subramaniam said today.

Accordingly, the users will not need to use their own network (e.g. Dialog or Mobitel) in accessing the free Wifi service.

“Users could access internet through the recently installed free Wifi hotspots regardless of network subscription. Fulfilling a pledge given in the 100-day plan of the government, the Ministry will complete the programme at 100 public locations soon,” Subramaniam said.

In the first phase, free Wifi spots had been installed at 26 locations covering eight districts including Kandy, Colombo Fort, Polonnaruwa, Matara, Jaffna, Galle, Peradeniya, Katunayake, Ratnapura and Dehiwela recently.

In setting up the next phases the demand of the given service and the geographical factors would be considered by the ministry in selecting new public locations to establish new Wifi hotspots, Subramaniam said.

Initially the service was available at a rate of 512 Kb/Sec with a total bandwidth of 100 megabytes for the users. (Piyumi Fonseka)