Most hotels provide internet facilities. Internet cafes with ADSL connection are found in most towns. Connections in remote towns will be slow. The average cost of surfing in a Cyber Cafe is about Euro 0.50 per hour. Many 5 star and some boutique hotels provide free WiFi facilities to guests.
Dialing out, you need to dial ’00’and the relevant country code before the number. Dialing within the country, inside a particular district, say, Colombo, you don’t have to dial its area code (for example, just dial 2XXXXXX) But, for an outstation call, you can’t do without the area codes.
Yes. If you have a ‘dual band’ & unlocked phone, you can choose a local SIM and top up cards (recharge cards) from several mobile operators, namely, Dialog, Mobitel, Etisalat, Hutch and Airtel. Dialog has a counter at Katunayake Airport where you can buy a connection for Rs. 1500/=
Dialing in, Sri Lanka’s country code is 94. To ring a number in Colombo, for instance, dial ++94112XXXXXX. If it’s a mobile number that you want to call, dial it after the country code. If it’s a Mobitel number, for example it should go like ++9471XXXXXXX.
All mobile operators support the GSM technology on GSM 900 / 1800 bands. WAP & GPRS is extensively supported. 3G and wireless broadband is available in Colombo. Wi-Fi zones are found in selected spots in major towns.
While Sinhala and Tamil are the official & most widely spoken languages in the country, English is a link language which is generally understood by most people. English is spoken at all hotels, major restaurants and shops. Road signs are mostly written both in Sinhalese & English.
Telephone facilities are widely available all over the country. There’re telephone kiosks which accept coins. But the clarity could be low & talk time could be brief. Apart from them, there’re communication centers found throughout the country that provide IDD facilities as well as Internet facilities.
