Huge Telecoms Investment for Sri Lanka

Dialog Telekom - Sri Lanka's largest mobile communications operator announced last week, the signing of a hall mark investment agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BoI) to invest a further US$150 million in the country's telecommunications sector within the next 2 years. The bullish investment will be targeted at Mobile, Wireless Local Loop Fixed Telephony, broadband, fibre optic backbone and International Gateway infrastructures.

A significant potion of this Investment would towards the deployment of fibre optic backbone, broadband and fixed telephony infrastructure sectors through Dialog Telekom's fully owned subsidiary Dialog Broadband Networks.

To date the mammoth investment brings the total investment in Dialog Telekom, close to US$450 million.

Commenting on the time frame associated with the investment programme, Dialog Chief Executive Dr Hans Wijayasuriya said "The proposed expansion involves an aggressive coverage and capacity expansion of our GSM mobile network leading upto the establishment of our 1000th base station, the expansion of our International Gateway infrastructure and the entry in to future oriented sectors across all regions of Sri Lanka.

Investments in Dialog Broadband Networks are targeted at enhancing Internet penetration levels through forward investments in deployment of a national fibre optic backbone and introduction of state-of-the-art wireless technology for broadband Internet delivery" Dr. Wijayasuriya added.

In conclusion Dr. Wijayasuriya mentioned that, "Our customers and stakeholders will see Dialog growing faster than ever before - Telekom Malaysia and Dialog Telekom share a strong commitment towards infrastructure development in Sri Lanka and to the paradigm of placing Sri Lanka on the world map of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) as second to no other in the region if not the world"."

Posted to the site on 23rd May 2006