When will the lightning network become operational?

[tiagocs]

I hear about Segwit activation and Lightning network but when will we be able to start using the Lightning network?

[RGBKey]

There was a post on /r/Bitcoin today about this, I believe the summary was that alpha releases for people interested in testing on the Mainnet will be available in roughly two weeks, and then after that a full release. There are 3 different teams for 3 different implementations working very hard to make sure that all implementations work with each other and they're doing their best so I'd say in a month or so you'll start to see the first people using it.

[tiagocs]

I think this two weeks answer is a meme answer.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/714x2k/what_is_the_status_of_the_lightning_network/