3G and HSDPA Launched in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's Dialog Telekom has announced that they will launch commercial 3G services in the City of Colombo today. Chief Executive Dialog Telekom Dr.Hans Wijayasuriya received the 3G license from Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) only yesterday, signalling the formal go ahead from the government of Sri Lanka for the introduction of commercial 3G services in Sri Lanka.

Announcing the commencement of the company's commercial 3G service, Dr Wijayasuriya said " Sri Lanka becomes the first 3G enabled country in South Asia due in no small measure, to the progressive policies of the TRCSL. The TRCSL has lead the region in terms of technology evolution for many years. Sri Lanka was also the first country to introduce GSM in South Asia in 1995. With respect to 3G, Dialog has the good fortune of being permitted to carry out a 3G trial as far back as 2 years ago well ahead of regional counterparts. Today, with the introduction of commercial services in the city of Colombo, we begin an all new journey in to 3rd Generation services and high speed mobile broadband"

Dialog's 3G network will initially provide coverage in the City of Colombo but is set to expand rapidly over the months to follow. "Dialog is committed to make 3G and the multi media services it delivers, meaningful, available and affordable to all Sri Lankan's in the same manner we transformed digital mobile telephony in Sri Lanka over the last decade" Dr Wijayasuriya added.

Dialog 3G will also support HSDPA at launch.

Since its inception in 2004, Dialog's 3G trial has been focused on the trial and validation of 3G equipment from multiple manufactures, and has over the past year grown to cover a substantial part of Colombo city. Over 1000 customers have participated in the Dialog 3G trial during this period.

Dialog Telekom Limited is a subsidiary of the Telekom Malaysia Group. The Mobile World subscriber database records that Dialog Telekom is the largest operator in the country, with nearly 62% of the market. The operator ended Q2 '06 with just over 2.5 million customers."

Posted to the site on 16th August 2006