Sri Lanka Telecom has secured a contract to build a fiber network connecting government offices in the nation.
The operator has been selected to build the LGN2.0 (Lanka government network 2.0), the Colombo Pagereported.
As well as connecting government agencies and public institutions, the network will be used to provide free public Wi-Fi to citizens.
The LGN2.0 project is being overseen by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). It has a total budget of 12.7 billion rupees ($86.1 million) over the next two years.
Sri Lanka's Minister of Mass Media Gayantha Karunathilaka has stated that the project aims to address concerns that the existing LGN is not fast enough to support Sri Lanka's ambitions to digitize the national economy.
The original LGN was deployed between 2007 and 2012. It is managed by the government-owned entity Lanka Government Information Infrastructure (LGII).