Sri Lanka to fully restore phone and Internet services by December 4

Deputy Minister of Digital Economy, Eranga Weeraratne, announced that telephone and internet networks disrupted by the recent disaster in Sri Lanka are expected to be fully restored by tomorrow (December 4).

He said the Ministry of Digital Economy, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, and all telecommunication service providers are working hard to fix the issues as quickly as possible.

According to the Deputy Minister, landslides and floods damaged provincial fibre connections in 11 places. With the Ministry’s direct involvement, services were restored in 9 of those locations within 24 hours. All provincial fibre connections are now active, and alternative routes are being used where some middle points remain affected.

More than 4,000 main transmission towers stopped functioning due to power failures and fibre damage. So far, around 2,800 towers have been repaired. Another 949 towers are still inactive, mostly because of ongoing power outages. Telecom companies are working with authorities to restore these soon.

The Tri-Forces are also helping by reaching affected towers quickly and providing power support when needed. The Deputy Minister noted that although people struggled to connect to mobile networks when the disaster struck on November 28, the Ministry had prepared technology to enable SMS services. But this backup was not necessary after many fibre connections were restored by November 29.

Some districts are still facing problems, especially Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Puttalam, and Vavuniya. Among these, Nuwara Eliya and Kandy are the worst affected. By this morning (December 3), the government expects more than 75% connectivity to be restored in Nuwara Eliya and Puttalam. Restoration in Kandy is expected to rise from 65% to about 70%.

The Deputy Minister emphasized that communication is vital during a crisis so people can stay informed and contact loved ones. He said over 80% of the disruptions have already been resolved and expressed confidence that full restoration will be achieved by December 4, 2025.