The Lanka Education and Research Network (LEARN) is now connected to the TEIN3 network. The link was brought up on April 1, 2010.

"This is a major milestone for LEARN, as this is the first time we are getting connected to the Academic Internet", stated Nimal Ratnayake, Technical Director of LEARN.

LEARN has been in operation for almost two decades but till April 1st, 2010 it only had access to commodity Internet.

Ratnayake thanked David West, George McLaughlin, Li Zhonghui and the TEIN3 NOC, and all the people involved in this initiative, for making the Sri Lanka connection a reality. He also thanked the generous support given to LEARN by Steve Huter of NSRC, and David Crowe of NERO, both from U of Oregon, who donated a router interface card for use with the link, and Michael Foley of the GDLN/World Bank who hand carried the card on his way
to Sri Lanka.

"The financial support of the European Commission which covers the bulk of our subscription is greatly appreciated. Getting connected to the academic Internet would simply be unaffordable for us without their support", explained the Technical Director of LEARN in the email that he send to the Advanced Networks community in order to spread the good news.

For more information about LEARN, please visit: http://www.ac.lk/
For more information about TEIN3, please visit:http://www.tein3.net/