Internet to all Villages
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the resolution forwarded by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in his capacity as the Minister of Technology to expand the ‘Communication to the Village’ project introduced to provide high-speed Internet connections to the entire country, Co-cabinet Spokesman Mass Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said.
Addressing the weekly Cabinet media briefing held yesterday at the Government Information Department, Minister Alahapperuma said that a survey covering all the 14,000 Grama Niladhari divisions within 25 districts in the island was conducted under the project ‘Communication to the Village’ by Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in 2019 regarding the lack of high – speed internet connections.
Based on the output of the above survey, the project inaugurated by Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission in cooperation with telecommunications service providers in the district of Ratnapura is scheduled to be completed in October 2021.
The Government is planning to expand the said project as a national project for covering the entire island with high–speed Internet facilities through improving the infrastructure facilities required for digitalization. The funds required for this project is expected to be financed from the Telecommunication Development Fund.
(Source: Daily News – By Ishara Mudugamuwa)
The provision of high speed internet to the entire country will require the laying of a national cable network and providing connections to each household, each business and each public premises.
This is so costly that even the USA cannot afford this infrastructure.