26 degrees of connectivity

Perhaps the inventors of the first form of ‘wireless networking’, Americans Hedy Kiesler Markey and George Antheil, would not have dreamed that their innovation would take off at the level of the masses of the Third World in far away Sri Lanka. “Take off” it did with the flash of electronic tablet and smartphone signal lights in Colombo when the government’s new free Wi-Fi ‘hotspots’ network was launched on Monday (March 30).

‘Wi-Fi’, the short name for the coined term ‘Wireless Fidelity’ technology first patented in the US by these two inventors in 1942, is now technically ‘free’ in 26 government-sponsored hotspots in Sri Lanka, the number of sites soon to expand throughout the country.

“Free Wi-Fi for all” is the government’s optimistic slogan, but the nitty gritties involved in converting the country to one giant hotspot, has meant, “not quite for all”.

Although the internet and free Wi-Fi zones are not magic in today’s world, statistics reveal that only 21.9 per cent of the population are accessing the internet in Sri Lanka. However, the significant role played by the tech-savvy younger generation in the January 8 presidential elections, has meant that Facebook and other social media sites has not only established itself as a rich vein of political news, views, insights and gossip, but also an influential vein.

Welcome as the limited hotspots are, rumblings in the social media are gathering momentum about the complicated registration process and compulsory requirement to provide National Identity Card (NIC) to qualify for access to the Wi-Fi zone.

Project and process

The Free Wi-Fi project is spearheaded by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) that functions under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Programme Manager, ICTA, Gavashkar Subramanium. He explains about the project, the process, the limitations and the registration requirements.

“Our main target is to launch the Free Wi-Fi project within the 100-Day Program. This consumes lot of Government funding. However, after discussions, the telecommunications operators together with Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL), agreed to help role out project within the strict timeline and also ensured they would take care of implementing 1000 free Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country.

Therefore Sri Lanka Telecom, Mobitel, Dialog, Etisalat, Huch, Airtel, LankaCom and Lanka Bell are stakeholders of the project. Right now we are carrying out a feasibility study on another 1300 locations to implement free W-Fi facilities by end of August.”

How to obtain Free – Wi-Fi?

According to Subramanium the simple procedure of obtaining free Wi-Fi facility is to register yourself first with network providers of your choice.

The easiest way to get registered, he say is to walk into any teleshop of Sri Lanka Telecom, Mobitel, Dialog, LankaCom and Lanka Bell and register by providing the NIC details .”Your account will be tracked by your NIC number and this registration is crucial to avoid the various unauthorized/illegal activities which is happening through the internet. Some portals may have self registration facility where the users can register online,” he explains.

Once registered, access is possible with any of the devices which have Wi-Fi capability. “When you enter any free Wi-Fi zone, it will automatically indicate multiple free Wi-Fi hotspots provided by Sri Lanka Telecom, Mobitel and LankaCom on your device.

(Ex: freewi-fi_slt) You can select one of the hotspots and as soon as you select, it will request you to enter the username and the password. Username for all the networks will be the National Identity Card number and the password will be the one which you provided at the time you registered,” says Subramanium, adding that the registration is a one time process. However, the account will get automatically deactivated is the facility remains idle for two months.

Free Wi-Fi provides 100MB data per person every month at a network speed of 512KB per second, liable to vary with the network load.

“This particular data capacity will be analyze for some period to understand the usage patterns. Later we hope to have further discussions with our telecommunication partners to decide how much data we should allocate per user depending on the usage patterns,” Subramanium explains.

A good concept

Janith Leanage- Software Engineer

The Wi-Fi issue was an election promise and not really feasible. But I think the idea of having free Wi-Fi at public places is a good idea that has been implemented across a lot of different countries. It’s something that travellers have come to expect as a norm. But the problem with this system is that you need a valid NIC number to log in, and the password is actually emailed to you so if you don’t have mobile data you can’t access the email and get the password to access the system.

Secure your privacy first

Nalin Kariyawasam -Project Manager

Under Maithri’s 100 Day works plan he promised to give free Wi-Fi to island while. As start-up step they gave 26 Wi-Fi enabled zones. But its still unclear how this is going to work as they said it’s only can access using NIC and people will only get 100mb data. One might say this is not enough, but for me it’s more than enough. Technically mobile users don’t need more data for day to day work. To use Google maps, to check a road or directions for a place/ checking emails, connect with social apps doesn’t require more data. But on a serious note government can track what are you surfing/ doing using your own NIC, so make it useful and make sure to secure your privacy first.

A good thing

Isuru Samaradiwakara - System Assurance Analyst

Covering the ‘entire country with Wi-Fi will take a tremendous effort, cost and time. The initial step the government has taken to introduce Wi-Fi hotspots in the country is a good thing. And the best thing is it’s free. One can complaint that the speed and data limit is not enough even for the usual internet surfing. But we have to compliment the government for the implementation and hope these Wi-Fi hotspots will improve and spread in the future.

26 hot spots

Hemal Kuruvitaarachchi- Banker and Vocalist

Wi-Fi is a need arising in the community as we are part of the global village. So people like us expect such facilities everywhere. But the fact is, there are now 26 areas where we can surf internet free of charge. Maybe there are technical difficulties for the government to give Wi-Fi the whole country at present, but they will soon come up with a solution, as the government not only has the obligation to fulfil its Wi-Fi promises, but also has to work towards the betterment of the people. This I think should be the first priority.