“Broadband” in Sri Lanka – Where the gremlins reside

ICTs in general 2 Minutes

ADSL

That’s a photo of where I get my SLT ADSL from. It chokes. It splutters. It dies.

But just when I was about to write this post and in the background decided to download a Top Gear episode, it magically just sprang to life.

Downloads

219Kb/s sustained for 20 minutes. Phew.

It’s not the first time my ADSL connection, of its own accord, decided to live up to what it is advertised as. Or at least something closer to it than the pissant data rate I usually get on it.

It was partly because my ADSL connection was so bad (and I’m on a business package) that I spent a small fortune and bought a HSPA 3G modem with Mobitel. Average speeds on it are much better than ADSL. And when ADSL simply gives up and dies during peak times, the 3G connection just keeps going.

What’s not so great is the measly 1.5Gb combined upload plus download package I’m on. Honestly, I usually go through that kind of data a day using my ADSL when I’m doing some multimedia work on the web.

The fact is, I pay a ridiculous amount of money a month for broadband packages that simply don’t work as advertised.  And that, whichever way you cut it, is just bull shit. The same bull shit one encounters on SLT’s broadband helpline, which asks to download an old Eudora programme from http://www.sltnet.lk and then says that if the speeds are ok from there, everything else is ok. Anything international, and apparently the copper in my Japanese junction box becomes the problem. Or some virus.

When I tell them I am on a Mac, the fun starts:

“Yes yes. Apple very good. But must be something running on background no? You have virus? No? Ah, no virus on Apple. Yes yes. Not like XP no? Ha ha. Did you try opening Eudora.exe? No, must work no? No? Not work? Did you click? Mac no – yes. Very good Apple. No exe. Yes. Ha ha. I forgot. Sorry. Must be with system then. Drivers? Did you restart? Ah. Ok. Did you restart? Ah. Ok. [Pause] Where you buy? Go ask? SLT ADSL no problem. Thank you.”

As for Dialog, the less said the better, though one does notice that they’ve changed their marketing spiel to describe Wimax speeds that now go as “up to {whatever speed}” in their recent ads.

Hopefully Lirneasia’s got some more answers to these issues.  Can’t wait.

Published by Sanjana

An Ashoka, Rotary World Peace and TED Fellow, I have since 2002 used, studied and advocated Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to strengthen peace, human rights & democratic governance. I founded in 2006 and till June 2020 edited the award-winning Groundviews, Sri Lanka's first civic media website. From 2002-2020 I was a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Policy Alternatives. I pioneered both the use of social media for activism and online citizen journalism/civic media in Sri Lanka, including setting up South Asia's first Twitter and Facebook accounts for civic media, in 2007. Having started digital security training for human rights activists in 2010, I continue to advise civil society on digital hygiene, mass and personal surveillance, privacy and secure communications to date. I also curate a comprehensive digital archive of material linked to peace and conflict in Sri Lanka, since 2002. I specialise in, advise and train on social media communications strategy, countering-violence extremism online, web-based activism, online advocacy and grounded, context-based, platform-specific social media research. My work experience over two-decades spans five continents. Through the ICT4Peace Foundation and since 2006, I help strengthen information management during crises and work on countering violent extremism online. For over a decade, this included leading the Foundation's work on these lines with the United Nations and other multi-lateral organisations involved in peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and humanitarian affairs. Since 2008, I have worked in South Asia, South East Asia, North Africa, Europe and the Balkans to capture, disseminate and archive inconvenient truths in austere, violent contexts. I completed doctoral studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand, looking at the symbiotic relationship between offline unrest and online instigation of hate and harm in Sri Lanka and, in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre in 2019, facilitated by leading research based on New Zealand's first ever Data for Good grant by Twitter.

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3 thoughts on ““Broadband” in Sri Lanka – Where the gremlins reside”

  1. Pingback: The State of “Broadband” in Sri Lanka - Take 1 « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace)
  2. Pingback: YouTube wants more citizen journalists « ICT for Peacebuilding (ICT4Peace)

  3. Ah you should try the dial up shit connection they give. All in all i will rather pay more for a decent service. this, Sir, is SHIT and no less. And they had the idiocy to introduce some brand options if you call them that – Bronze, means you are screwed, platinum say you are ripped off and some other unknown element means you are dumb. F them. Bless

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