President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has raised national security concerns over the initial agreement with Starlink, citing the government’s inability to access critical data—unlike with existing telecom providers in Sri Lanka.
The President made these comments in response to a question during the Satana political program last night, regarding the progress of the Starlink internet service in Sri Lanka, which was initially scheduled to launch in April.
He noted that access to telecom data has played a key role in preventing crimes, including the Arugambay security threat and the recent court shooting. “We could act fast because we had access to telecom data,” the President said.
In contrast, the Starlink agreement does not grant the government similar access. “We don’t have authority to access Starlink’s data system, and there’s no local contact person for this either,” he stated.
President Dissanayake emphasized that data access is vital for national security and should have been included in the original agreement. “In several meetings, the National Security Council also highlighted the risks to national security posed by such agreements,” he revealed.
“We discussed this with Starlink, and they promised to provide a dashboard—but we still don’t know the extent of data access it will allow,” he added. (NewsWire)