Hotspots in Colombo
All the hotspots that I know works
In a three at nine and I realize that indi.ca is messed up. Got a meeting on Galle Road but I have time to duck into McDonald’s, order an Egg McMuffin and fix the page at the counter. In the middle of the day I need to send some invoices, so I walk to The Commons and use the Suntel WoW thing, which costs money. Little buggy and credit card processing fails, but kinda works in 15 minute gasps. Enough to send some emails and drink a passion fruit. Run into Hell’s Dire Agent and he gives us a ride back to meatspace. Of course there’s no Internet in my actual office, where I’ve been exactly twice. It’s easier (and more productive) to run around Colombo all day and connect on the go. I buy like 1,000 worth of drinks and food I don’t want, but it’s well worth it. Interviewed the SunTel ISP guy and he said they got this new CDMA card that can connect anywhere. All in all, Colombo is surprisingly good for a whatsitcalled, mobile professional.
I copping this from press releases, but – “The new WiFi hotspots include McDonalds Colombo3 and Rajagiriya, The Gallery Café, The Cricket Club, The Commons Coffee House, Odel Unlimited, Excel World, Hotshots, Raffles, Il gelato, Café on the 5th, Glow & Tantra.” I personally use Macdo and Barista’s a lot (the latter which is transitioning to Suntel support I think. Also use Barefoot a lot a lot, which is run by the cafe itself. At Macdo and Barista you can walk in an Wireless Network Connections will connect, no login. Barefoot you just need to ask the office for the WEP code.
The other Hotspots are pay, like Rs 200 for 3 hours (methinks). That’s fine, I mean, I don’t have to keep ordering drinks and going to the bathroom all the time. Thing is, I would spend more than Rs 200 on food/drinks over 3 hours, but if I’m paying for the WiFi I don’t feel like I have to. Whatevs. The only problem is that SunTel’s credit card processing doesn’t work. I can enter my name but it won’t load the secure credit card processing page. Sam thinks it’s a Catch-22, that is you need to be online to pay by credit card, but you can’t go online unless you pay. However, I logged in with his prepaid card and I still couldn’t pay, so what the shit. I don’t mind paying, but I have no idea where to get that card and nor do I want to make two trips. I just want to pay with my credit card and it doesn’t work (in Commons at least).
Meh, but as to another press release, I’ve been hearing about this EV-DO in San Fran and New York which lets you connect super-fast over the cell networks, but I never thought we’d get something similar here. However, there’s this new CDMA thing which, despite being a little slower, lets you connect from almost anywhere. You buy a card for your laptop (at Excel World) and a monthly data plan from SunTel. When the invoices clear I think I’ll buy one. That should be freaking sweet. Then I can procrastinate anywhere.
As long as customers using WIFI are sensitive to other diners plight, they can surf to their hearts content, especially if it’s not crowded.
I mean they don’t even have to keep ordering drinks. one will suffice.
If SLT launch Wimax in next year, It’s would be more effective than CDMA or WiFi. Which covers 50km radius in 2.4 M/Bytes per hour (I think I got my figures right). Let’s hope we could download a movie next time on the bus.
The real bottleneck for Sri Lanka isn’t last-mile, it’s international bandwidth. I have an SLT 128k ADSL line, but realistically I only get 6.
No matter what you do on the last mile, if the intl pipe isn’t allocated better (note allocated, the capacity is there) it doesn’t matter if the end-user connects via WiFi, CDMA or carrier pigeon. It’ll still be slow.
Also, from what I hear WiMax is targeted more for internal connectivity (connecting routers, etc) than end-users. The WiMax standard isn’t even agreed upon yet, Intel is partly just testing it here.
I read with interest the rollout and success of CDMA voice/data wireless technology in Sri Lanka, but cannot obtain a true figure of the consumers expected data speed or bandwidth when accessing the Internet via a CDMA phone, although the standard modem settings in the SLT Citylink phone is 19,00 KBps.
I have contacted SLT, who did not reply, Suntel likewise and Lanka Bell gave a figure of between 14 and 115 KBps!!
Having attempted to setup a SLT Citylink CDMA phone with a PC by international voice call instruction (as none is given by SLT), with a friend in Rambukkana, Kegalle area has been extremely frustrating, firstly the serial RS232 cable supplied at additional costs did not work, I then contacted the manufacturer of the CDMA telephone in Korea, AIJI Systems, who answered expediently and informed me that SLT only requested serial connection cables.
Following a long struggle and no luck, and no advice or sensible suggestion whatsoever from the SLT Helpdesk, other than “there must be something wrong with your PC”!! I advised my friend to buy a Serial to USB connection from a PC shop in Colombo, which was purchased and worked immediately it was connected with the phone, and connected to the internet.
This is now where the problem arises with knowing the existing data speed and expectations, as although the phone connects (as per a dial up connection), it stops there! ANY Downloads and updates to software will not work and “time out” likewise POP3 mail will not send or receive using Microsoft Outlook, and browsing is abysmally slow.
Do you have any suggestions please with respect to true data transfer speeds using the current CDMA technology, and is SLOW data connection the aetiology of the problem described above?
All the CDMA providers boast high speed internet connection but is this the reality for the customer?
Best Wishes
Indi, SLT does not offer 128kbs aDSL connection though if offers 512kbs/128kbs connection which is known as home express connection with 512kbs download and 128 kbs upload connection also known as 512kbs connection.
WiMax does not offer both the high speed and the extended range well what is possible is that either somebody lives close to the tower will get more speed while the person who lives in the border gets slow connection which is true in CDMA as well where speed is often depend on the signal strength.
I do find the certain bittorrent downloads as faster like downloading ubuntu linux and I think there should be some guys seeding the Linux torrent from Sri Lanka as well.
128K? Are u sure? Isn’t that more like 512k? Or are you refering to the upstream bandwidth?
As for the intl pipe, I think SLT uses a separate connection from Suntel, Lankabell, etc.. At least I hope they do.
If you have ADSL you should get a real speed of between 200 – 450k – which translates to downloading at about 10 – 40kbps (depending on time of day)
Best way is to test your connection at an uncongested time (e.g. late night) here
http://homepage.eircom.net/~leslie/testpage/testlrge.htm
If you have ADSL home, you should get around 300kbits upwards… Though, of late, this figure is dropping…
I moved and don’t have adsl at my new place. Until I get broadband, I have been using GPRS on my mobile phone and connect to laptop via Bluetooth and getting acceptable throughput for email and web surfing at 0.02 cents a kilobyte (I hope my employer picks up the tab, hint hint he he). It is a working system that I have used in a moving train and in a car (just for the heck of it!) and it works! . I use WiFi regularly at the Cricket Club and its free, unfortunately, Cafe on the 5th, which is closer to home, requires a WoW card. My Wow card works fine, never used a credit card for payment. Only problem with Wow card at 5th is that every 15 minutes it resets the connection. Another great free WiFi place is the airport–there are three or four networks, don’t choose Dialog or SLT but one of the other one and its free like in free beer! I am sure there are hosts of other free WiFi spots in Colombo, so folks keep tracking them and reporting them.
[...] Why don’t we have a kottu meetup at some hotspot and talk Sri Lankan web? [...]
hi! i am doing assingnement on slt adsl, so i need some adsl users comments , so pls send some some comments on adsl to my mail address ishaanrulez@yahoo.com
I have been using LankaBell CDMA Phone internet connection for the last one year and here’s my experience.
Typical download speeds 17-12KBps,typical upload speeds 14-7KBps. (This is with full signal level and measured accurately using speed checking software and websites,NOT the device connection speed which is misleading many users) As you can see this is far below LankaBell and Suntel’s claimed 115KBps max.
On the plus side, LankaBell connection is cheap & quite stable, unlike Suntel’s which disconnects and reconnects adding up connection fees.
The fact is that the actual CDMA phone is capable of achieving much higher speeds but these operators have not acquired enough bandwidth at their end to match the growth of the customer base.
Lanka Bell’s claimed speed is 115kb/s=14.3KB/s.
Most of the customers of Lankabell have been given Huawei CDMA phone which is capable of connecting 230kbps as the maximum speed (May be 153.6kbps) as in telecom speed is measured you have to devide it by 8 to get the speed in bytes and the speed computer calculates the download speeds in Bytes.
Problem with the suntel phone lies with Aiji brand CDMA phone which is often disconnects even within 20 seconds of inactivity. Suntel apprently has switched to Huawei Brand CDMA phone that doesn’t suffer with this problem and transfer the data at high speed. I have not done a full test bet when comparing two service provides both CDMA phones should be identical otherwise we get misleading results.
My personal experience I would sugget you guys to go for Huawei brand rather than with Aiji or ZTE where these brands have a maximum speed 115.2kbps while Huawei is 230.4 kbps.
Well Suntel offers low rate for the internet between 6.00 pm to 7:00am.
My Wi-Fi experience at Colombo City Hotel can be found at [link]
Indi. Does the CDMA unit also works as a modem in addition to facilitating for the connection?
Interesting talking about hotspots.. Thanks for all the handy info.. By the way, Indi. Does a CDMA unit also works as a modem in addition to facilitating for the connection?
[...] across this post on wifi hotspots in Colombo on indi’s site. A 2006 post but still might be relevant. Barefoot might still be having the [...]