Posted by
Shifani
It was announced this week by the Prime Minister that 26 parts of the country have been turned into free Wi-Fi zones. Epic news. These zones are spread out in Colombo, Kandy, Matara, Galle, Jaffna, Ratnapura, Polannaruwa and Hambantota. Here's a breakdown of where exactly.
We went to a hotspot at Colombo Racecourse to see how it works. First, each area has a hotspot run by someone else - in this case Dialog. So we had to look for 'Free Wi-Fi Dialog'
Once you're in it's pretty slow - about 0.5 Megabits per second, compared to 10 Megabits per second on our office Dialog 4G line. This speed, however, is enough for email and some basic web browsing. It's not good for video.
In the Fort area, there's free Wi-Fi at Galle Face Green, the Floating Market in Pettah, the Dutch Hospital (three places whose frequent large crowds are going to be very grateful), the private and public Pettah bus stations, the Fort railway station, and the Sri Lankan Police Headquarters.
The Law College in Hulftsdorp also has free access.
In Colombo 7, the the Colombo Racecourse (yay), the Colombo Public Library and the National Museum have Wi-Fi.
Battaramulla and Dehiwala also have a free Wi-Fi zone each - at the Dehiwala Zoo, and for some reason at the Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment.
So this is as godayata-magic as it gets. First the highways and new malls, and now this - here's to more pleasant surprises in the future and to hoping these zones have a good internet speed.
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Jagath
great! people can live a free online life now. But unfortunately keep in my mind that, there wont be anymore racecourses, dutch hospitals or independence arcades going to come up……so enjoy you 100mb of free wifi to the max
Lasith
There might have been funds for more development, but we've seen the level of theft that has taken place…
Chamz
Why is everyone complaining about the 100mb? This is not for downloading movies! This is for essential tasks that people would want to do while on the go, like checking email, checking the maps for a place where you want to go etc. Stop complaining people!
Ishak
This article is so lame… So much negativity… Writing an article about free WiFi it self a godayata-magic scenario… You want 4G WiFi? 100Mbps comes only for 4G… And 0.5 Mbps is not "pretty slow"… government doesn't want you to watch movies on free WiFi… Maybe you've been getting paid to watch movies at office but others don't!! I got connected to free WiFi at pettah and the 6th part wasn't required for me… I got connected right after signing up…
Anon
This is a good thing, but speeds too slow for video and images are probably a good thing. With Sri Lanka’s alleged affinity for pornography you will find people taking up residence in these places if not
vamadhev
Good thing, it's necessary for tourists ,
nali
is this 100 mb for a month o "lifetime"??
Husny
100 MB for a month right ?
pasan malitha
Every placeses set free wifi hot sport from galle.
danu
dont be stupid this wifi can t use Evan computer expert. its not user friendly how do other people use this. from the registration page its totaly slow and not working as we thought now a days no one is gonna loose half an hour for smail information. i dont think this wifi is using even 30 person. very poor signal not just internet local wifi. beside 100 mb for one month !! just one video song take take 50mb approximately its totally ridicules if we try to use that poor slow internet it will take 30days to fully consume in that case they are right
my suggestion
if that is wifi free it not should be any registration
should be plug and play uninterruptedly usage
this era it technology are so high we could have control user traffic by mac id for limit mb
100 mb is not enough 100mb is ok for 1 day.
it should be flexible to use foreigners
and signal strength should be high we can use hi distance support wifi antenna. and thay will not expensive 3 4 km working wifi antena will b e cost below 100 $ you can serch on ebay.
think about that in usa most of area using very free wifi . with high speed internet
please dont plant useless wifi router around country instead you can deduct telecommunication Levi charges
if you think i am right or wrong comment it…….
ac
whats "ridicules" is your english LOLS!
danu
dont be stupid this wifi can t use Evan computer expert. its not user friendly how do other people use this. from the registration page its totaly slow and not working as we thought now a days no one is gonna loose half an hour for smail information. i dont think this wifi is using even 30 person. very poor signal not just internet local wifi. beside 100 mb for one month !! just one video song take take 50mb approximately its totally ridicules if we try to use that poor slow internet it will take 30days to fully consume in that case they are right
my suggestion
if that is wifi free it not should be any registration
should be plug and play uninterruptedly usage
this era it technology are so high we could have control user traffic by mac id for limit mb
100 mb is not enough 100mb is ok for 1 day.
it should be flexible to use foreigners
and signal strength should be high we can use hi distance support wifi antenna. and thay will not expensive 3 4 km working wifi antena will b e cost below 100 $ you can serch on ebay.
think about that in usa most of area using very free wifi . with high speed internet
please dont plant useless wifi router around country instead you can deduct telecommunication Levi charges
if you think i am right or wrong comment it…….
udara imasha
Dunnama kanna
Api nuwara yanna onada free wifi ganna. yanna annama RS. 100/= yanawa. mara weda thama . akko hemathanatama denna ona. (mn mawathagama)
Arsh
I wanted youtube but ok
chandima
regsted
zafran
I am a System Engineer and i do say that the free wifi at the speed of 0.5mb is much more worthy for me and my colleagues, make use of these only for emergency purposes like checking a mail.
Not to watch video songs or movies.
Carlos
I don`t understand why foreigners cann`t use this free wifi, is asking me for my National ID. I love Sri Lanka but in 2016 I can`t understand about the daily electricity cuts around the country, and the very poor quality of wifi in most acommodations. For many people travelling a good wifi is as important as a good matress
Anon
Tip - last time I used the free wifi, I used my 3g to google images of an NIC card. You'll find numbers of random cards that way - can be used for wifi.
Fusion WiFi
That's a great initiative by your government. With internet services being the utility in this age WiFi is no different. As a matter of fact we are going through WiFi evolution and so far it's just the tip of ice berg that's been explored. We'd like to see free WiFi offering as a part of corporate social responsibility of businesses like other pro bono initiatives. Regardless, the initiative this article has discussed should definitely be appreciated considering the government is paving the way for WiFi evolution.
Mr C
Hey guys, do you know there is a mobile app called Wifyer which facilitates to build up a crowd sourced WiFi network by simply using users mobile data.
It's like someone can share his or her mobile data by using Wifyer and earn some points
And people who have Wifyer points can connects to other Wifyer users who are sharing their mobile data using Wifyer and enjoy WiFi.
And the best thing is this app is from set of Sri Lankan software engineers.
Check this out: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wifyer.wifyer&hl=en
Firinas
lol