In 2006, when I expressed skepticism about government claims that Jaffna was getting a fiber optic network in the middle of the war, I was assailed. Unless SLT has built a second cable in 2009, in addition to the one they built in 2006, I was right. This would be the right time for Mr N.P. Perera, or whoever he was, to apologize.

But that aside, this is very good news. I hope SLT will offer decent leased line prices to Jaffna and that some entrepreneur will quickly move to set up BPO operations in the peninsula. Our friend Muttukrishna Sarvananthan is talking up building a knowledge economy in the North. One precondition has been satisfied.

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) has commissioned a fibre optic cable linking the former war zone in the northern Jaffna peninsula with the rest of the country, offering high-speed communications, a statement said.
The “information superhighway” to the north has been built alongside the A9 main route to Jaffna, where information technology and business process outsourcing ventures are being promoted to provide jobs for youth after the war.

SLT said its expanded fibre optic information system will improve customer access to high performance broadband, helping business expand and enabling all telecommunications operators to expand their operations bringing new facilities to the north.

The new cable has the capacity to meet all future requirements of the Northern Peninsula, it said.

Sri Lanka Telecom began the project after the end of the island’s 30-year ethnic war, fought largely in the north and east, in May 2009.