SLT billing for internet connection – A swindle?

Today most Sri Lankan customers use SLT for their internet connection. Being connected to the world is vital to function effectively as well as to keep up with fast-expanding knowledge as well as professional needs.

However, the common experience with almost all customers in that by the 15th of every month, if not before, the internet slows down to an absurd degree that it cannot be accessed. 

When I inquired why the package given by them runs out so fast the SLT explanation was farcical. 

Their explanation is that the hours the customer pays for are distributed equally between the peak period (8 a.m. to midnight and non-peak hours midnight to 8 a.m.). What this means is although you pay for X number of hours you can use only half of those hours during the day. The other hours are allocated to the non-peak hours between mid -night to 8 a.m., which is useless for most users except the owls.

No wonder that internet hours runs out so fast, the customer gets only half the hours he pays for! If he wants to use the other half he has to be working from midnight to 8 a.m. or buy extra hours!

If this true then it is a swindle and a matter for consumer protection. They know that the customer cannot use half his hours unless he works at midnight! The SLT is pocketing the payment for half the hours without providing the service! 

The SLT owes us an explanation on this big corporate swindle. After all the Government, ultimately the people, also have a large investment in this large corporation. It is tragic that they can get away by robbing half the hours we pay for by allocating them to non-peak (they are billed at the same rate, there is no difference between peak and non- peak hour charges).

R. Perera