Lanka Internet clients to get new operator

Senior management at Lanka Internet Services Ltd, the Internet and telecommunications service provider which abruptly halted operations the previous week, have been found. Last week, its customers and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) of Sri Lanka had been actively searching for anyone from the company to answer as to why services had suddenly shut down. In a meeting with the Director General of the TRC, Kanchana Ratwatte on Monday – a day after The Sunday Times FT broke the story about the crisis at the company - Ratwatte instructed the company to segregate its operations and hand over its broad customer base to a different operator. "The immediate issue is with regard to the customers and they were amenable to that," said Ratwatte, speaking to The Sunday Times FT.

Lanka Internet has informally informed the TRC that they are in negotiations to hand over their customers to another operator and that progress is being made on those negotiations. Ratwatte said the TRC plans to verify these developments as well as the prospective buyer. The company has had a long history of financial difficulties, filing for bankruptcy twice in a year with services to their clients being interrupted twice in the past six months.