Sri Lankian Operator Plans 3G Launch

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel has announced plans to prepare for the launch of its 3G services and to further extend its GSM capacity and coverage. Under the Stage III expansion drive, the capacity will be further extended to serve an additional 750,000 subscribers with 800 new base stations and with an intelligent core network equipped with a soft switch to be fully deployed before the end of 2007.

The company committed to this goal by signing a turn-key supply contract with Huawei Technologies.

This investment for the launch of 3G technology builds on a series of successful and rewarding accomplishments in 2006, that had been an especially important year for Mobitel with the launch of Smart 5 the most revolutionary pre-paid package to have entered the market coupled with the popularity of the Double M post-paid offerings, reduced rates on IDD Buddy and breaking the language barrier in mobile communication through the introduction of Sinhala and Tamil SMS along with its extension of international auto-roaming to over 150 countries.

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel - the national mobile service provider - is wholly owned by Sri Lanka Telecom. In January 2004, the company launched its full-fledged GSM network that is EDGE/GPRS enabled and designed to operate on dual bands. Investments committed to date in its 3G and GSM service offering totals over US$200 million and is set to increase its present 600 base stations to 1500 base stations by the end of this year.

The Mobile World subscriber database reports that Mobitel ended Q3 '06 with some 688,000 customers, giving the company a market share of 14.4%."

Posted to the site on 5th February 2007