A joint venture has taken advantage of economic growth to make Sri Lanka the latest destination on the information superhighway. The information superhighwayís relentless Asian push has continues in Sri Lanka--the latest access ramp has been set up by the newly formed Sri Lanka Internet Services Ltd. (LISL). Offering low-cost Internet connectivity and ìfriends and family electronic mailî to, and from within Sri Lanka, LISL hopes to take advantage of recent economic growth to encourage commercial use of the Internet. According to Mr. Samaratunga, the systems design manager at LISL, the project came about when US Vice President Al Gore and the past prime minister of Sri Lanka Ranil Wikremesinghe, came to an agreement for more cordial relationships between the two countries. However, LISL is not a government organization.(List of Internet service providers in Sri Lanka)

LISL began with a database service, and received technical help from its United States venture partner, International Internet Services, Inc. Three Sri Lankan companies also fund the venture: Lanka Ventures, Central Finance and Development Finance Corporation of Ceylon.

A connection to the Internet is made through a 64-Kb/second line leased from Sri Lanka Telecom. It is not a quality service, and the company is planning to change its connection. A TI connection to the Internet has been ruled out for now because it would cost LISL about Rs. 1 million a year ($21,000). Currently, LISL has about 50 customers, or connections and hope to increase their connection coverage. LISL offers the following services like World-wide e-mail connectivity, International store-and-forward fax, and other Internet systems such as FTP (file transfer protocol) Telenet, Gopher, Archie, Veronica, Jughead, On-line merchandising, Hotel and Air Line reservations and On-line video conferencing.

A registering fee of Rs.5,000($100) will get a user a 2,400-baud modem, ìLanka Internet E-mailî mail software with a built in English/Sinhala/Tamil-language text-editor, 24-hour customer support and unlimited modem access to the Lanka Internet Network Operating Center located in Colombo, Sri Lanka. A monthly fee of Rs.1,500 ($30) allows users to send 100 messages units internationally each month. Additional usage costs Rs.1.50 ($0.03) per local message unit and Rs.15 per international message unit. These prices are comparatively high to the current US Internet service average of $15-20 per month for unlimited access to the Internet and regular telephone rates for e-mail.

Global Enterprise Services (GES) also provides Internet gateway for Sri Lankaís networks--and to India, Japan, Peru, Singapore and Venezuela. GES is an international provider of Internet servicers and internetworking solutions for individuals, corporations, governments and academic organizations.

Sri Lanka Telecom, which is to be privatized, is planning to install a Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) while at the same time upgrading its mainframe computers.

Currently, most of the Internet usage lies mainly in the commercial sector. It is my belief that by the turn of the century more and more individuals will start getting hooked onto the Net as charges lower with increasing foreign competition. Early this year (1996) Sri Lanka has placed its business yellow pagesí on the Internet World Wide Web under the Lanka Business Web branding.

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Last updated on March 6, 1996 by Ms. Nishanthi Mendis

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