Sri Lanka Telecom, announced its latest upgrade of SLTnet, the Internet service provider in Sri Lanka. SLTnet caters to the needs of the wider community of Sri Lankans, be it residential or corporate in nature being the unchallenged, dominant player with a share of 60% of the Internet market.
With the recent upgrade SLTnet added more capacity (STM4 link) to its International Internet backbone (Internet Protocol and Broadband connectivity - IPBB). The company now has 2.2 Gbps of international IPBB capacity. SLT has direct connectivity to Global Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Asia, Europe and USA and is planned to upgrade to 3.5Gbps or more within the year.
Speaking on the significance of the upgrade, Ms. P. N. E. Abayasekara - Acting CEO of SLT said, "Sri Lanka has very poor local content. We always try to take it internationally, as majority of users have access to international content and less mirror sites. Lesser local contents and mirror sites drive users overseas and the quality of service drops when traffic is increased. This creates a bottleneck scenario at points where the local paths connect to the World Wide Web. Mirror sites are internet copies of the same site, which are located in different geographic areas, allowing users to choose the site closest to them. This lessens internet traffic and access time. If the situation is that we at SLT always take necessary steps to continuous upgrade of our internet backbone to serve better speeds".
SLTNet offers a host of services like dialup internet with many value added features, pre-paid internet services, Broadband internet through ADSL technology, Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity), international internet roaming, hosting services at the internet Data Centre (iDC), Broadband internet connectivity for valued corporate customers to their IP-VPN (Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network), Broadband internet through Metro Ethernet connectivity, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services with SLT MaxTallk IDD calling cards as well as international IP transit services as part of its global services.
Dialup internet
SLTnet provides access to the internet for the cost of a half of the local call rate (50% discounted rate) through a single number (1250) during peak and economy time bands.
International internet Roaming
SLT Internet customers enjoy International Roaming on dial-up as well as Wi-Fi networks. In Roamers too could use SLTNet dial-up and Wi-Fi services. SLTNET is a proud member of the iPass network, the world’s leading alliance of Internet Service Providers and major telcos. The iPass Network allows the corporate business traveler a secure cost-effective access to the Internet or ones company Intranet from thousands of POPs (points of presence) around the world. This concept is commonly referred to as Internet Roaming. iPass global roaming provider has the world’s largest footprint of Wi-Fi hotspots, with over 60,000 hotspot locations and over 19,000 remote dialup access locations over 160 countries.
Pre-paid solution
SLT’s Internet Pre-Paid Card, which is a great plus for the traveller who can enjoy access to the Internet at a flat, per-minute rate, without the inconvenience of passing through the whole process of application, activation and monthly billing. This Internet Pre-Paid Card has also enabled the infrequent Internet user, students and people on tight budgets, to make cost effective use of the Internet. Prepaid Customers have the choice to top-up their accounts on-line through web (www.sltnet.lk). A new customer can even purchase the prepaid account from home online.
Mobile solution
SLT already extended its Internet (SLTnet) services to the customers of Mobitel, building yet another example of business convergence between the two institutions. The SLTNet E-mail-to-SMS service allows Mobitel customers the facility of viewing their important e-mail messages via their mobile phones. This service is presently being provided to mobile Mobitel, Dialog as well as Tigo customers. Mobitel customers can now enjoy a pre-paid Internet account on-line via Mobitel SMS, a unique e-mail address (<mobilenumber>@sltmobitel.lk), a charge rate of half the SLT’s local call charge through a unique dial up number, available around the clock (1250), plus value added services such as web mail, web accelerator, web filter, on-line call waiting facilities and SLTNet Messenger. Mobitel customers will also have the benefit of the SLTNet Pre-Paid Card being Wi-Fi enabled to permit them to use Internet facilities at Wi-Fi hotspots.
Wireless internet (Wi-Fi)
The Company continues to provide selected local hotels with Wi-Fi Mobile Internet Zones, or Wi-Fi Hotspots as they are popularly known. The SLTNet Internet Zone enables the hotels customers as well as their employees to be continuously on-line and enjoying access speeds of up to 2 Mbps. Bandaranaike International Airport is also powered with an SLTnet Wi-Fi Mobile Internet Zone since year 2003.
Broadband internet
Today, SLT’s islandwide broadband network enables high speed Internet access from the suburbs and rural areas to the urban areas of the island. SLTNet launched its volume based broadband internet packages beginning with the Entrée, which offers downloading capabilities up to 512 Kbps, uploading capabilities of 128 Kbps and a volume of 1 GB free, every month. Other two packages were Home express and Office express which provides unlimited access. The ‘Office express’ package enables the customer to download data up to 2Mbps and upload data up to 512Kbps. The ‘Home express’ enables downloading up to 512 Kbps and uploading up to 128 Kbps.
"The quality of internet access via broadband within the local industry is above regional thresholds but sparse local content drives users to access overseas sites at slower speeds. The local speeds within Sri Lanka is comparatively higher to what users experience when accessing international websites, web pages or servers that are located overseas. ADSL Broadband customers and corporate customers consume 72% of bandwidth usage of SLTnet, 13% are consumed for hosted services at the SLT internet Data Centre (iDC) while 8% is consumed via the Direct Internet Leased Lines (DILL)" said Mrs. Deepa Liyanagama, General Manager/ ISP & Hosting Services of SLT. 
