+94LK
Sri Lanka number screening
A small trilingual market on 10-digit 07 numbers, where clearing long-disconnected lines before screening WhatsApp is what keeps costs down.
Mobile number format
Sri Lankan mobiles are 10 digits nationally and begin with 07 — 0771234567, for example. Drop the leading zero for international form: +94 plus 9 digits. Landlines use 0 plus a two-digit area code, Colombo being 011.
Main carriers
- Dialog Axiata
- Mobitel
- Hutch
076 and 077 generally belong to Dialog, 071 to Mobitel, and 072 and 078 to Hutch. Hutch absorbed the former Etisalat ranges and Airtel Lanka has since been folded into Dialog, so range ownership is mid-consolidation — treat prefixes as indicative and verify live.
On the ground
Sinhala, Tamil and English all operate in parallel, so a single list may need three sets of creative — and grouping by region beats grouping by prefix, since the North and East are predominantly Tamil-speaking. The island runs on UTC+5:30. Since the 2022 economic turbulence, small top-ups have made up a larger share of prepaid usage, and long-dormant lines have grown more common.
Screening guidance
Remove anything not starting 07 along with length anomalies, then run validity checks to clear long-dormant lines — a step that matters more here than in most markets, because it cuts the wasted spend on later platform checks. Make WhatsApp registration and activity the primary signal, with Facebook filling in the over-40s.
Key platforms in Sri Lanka
WhatsApp is the one messaging layer shared across communities — Sinhala- and Tamil-speaking users alike — and it is where local traders take orders. Facebook carries news and local commercial feeds with stronger reach among older users, while TikTok skews young and still hands the actual transaction back to WhatsApp.
FAQ
How many digits is a Sri Lankan mobile number?
Ten digits nationally, starting 07 — 0771234567, for instance. In international form, drop the zero and write +94 plus 9 digits. Landlines use 0 and a two-digit area code (Colombo is 011), differing in both length and opening digits, so filtering on the 07 prefix alone removes most mistakenly collected fixed lines.
Which operator is 077 in Sri Lanka?
077 and 076 are typically Dialog Axiata, 071 is Mobitel, and 072 and 078 are Hutch. That said, Hutch has absorbed the old Etisalat ranges and Dialog has acquired Airtel Lanka, so the map is still settling. Use the prefix for a rough split and rely on a live lookup for the actual answer.
Does language matter when screening Sri Lankan numbers?
Yes. Sinhala, Tamil and English all coexist, with Tamil dominant in the North and East and Sinhala across the centre and south, and getting it wrong costs you conversion. Prefixes carry no language signal, so group by region or by existing customer tags, then let WhatsApp activity results decide the send order.
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