Starlink Emerges as Crucial Lifeline in Sri Lanka’s Natural Disaster Crisis

The collapse of Sri Lanka’s telecom grid during Cyclone Ditwah has thrust an unexpected player into national disaster response: Starlink, whose satellite-based connectivity became a lifeline in several districts cut off from the mobile and fibre network.

Then-President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s initiative to bring Starlink to Sri Lanka was heavily criticized by then-opposition MP Sunil Handunnetti in May 2024.

Handunnetti accused Wickremesinghe of welcoming “economic hitmen” like Elon Musk to the country, though he later clarified and apologized for the specific wording.

Despite the criticism, Handunnetti later became a minister in the new administration, which approved Starlink but delayed its launch over data security concerns

As fibre backbones snapped in 11 locations and 4,000 of the island’s 16,000 towers went offline due to widespread power failures, Sri Lanka’s dependence on land-based infrastructure became starkly visible.

In this vacuum, Starlink terminals provided rapid-deployment broadband links where ground networks failed marking the first major use of low-earth-orbit satellite internet in a Sri Lankan emergency.

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