Sri Lanka Telecom reports a fall of 31% in its Q3′08 net profits on a y-o-y basis, driven by inflation and higher costs. The Sri Lankan operator says that its ended Q3′08 with a net income of $11.2 million, dip by $0.016 million since 2007, even the Q3 revenues grew by 4% since last year to $0.106 million. ‘High costs, led by high inflation in the third quarter, was the main reason for the fall in net profit,’ said Upali Mahamithawa, head of investor relations at SLT.
Wireless Federation » archive for 'Sri Lanka'
SLT experiences a 31% fall in Q3′08 net profits (Sri Lanka)
- November 28th, 2008
- 1:28 pm
Sri Lankan operators resolve the interconnection charges dispute with Airtel
- November 24th, 2008
- 8:00 am
The dispute between the four Sri Lankan incumbents and the fifth mobile operator Bharti Airtel Lanka have been resolved with the parties deciding not to implement the Interconnection Charges, reports a senior Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRC) Official.
“The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Consultant in his report had suggested the IC to be at Rs. 1, but all operators, decided to operate on ’sender keeps all’ basis where they will incur those charges onto their network,” the official said. The interconnect rules of 2003 by the TRC contain an Interconnect rate of $0.029/min at peak time trailing to 38 cents during the discount time band. IC is specified to ensure fair compensation for the use of the terminating (receiving party) network infrastructure by the network originating the call. The rate applies in both directions and hence represents parity and fair bilateral compensation.
Dialog Telekom exceeds a subscriber base of 5 million at Sept-end (Sri Lanka)
- November 17th, 2008
- 6:44 am
Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s leading mobile operator by subscribers, reports a fall of 86% in its net profits for 9 months driven by higher energy and network costs and rising inflation. The profits came down to $9.36 million in comparison to $66.38 million since last year. Overall group turnover for the period rose 9% to $249.15 million. It ended the 9 month period with a subscriber base of more than 5 million, acquiring 50% of Sri Lankan mobile market.
Zain Bahrain soon to launch Zain Wallet Service with minimum BD1 deposit
- November 4th, 2008
- 6:31 am
Zain Bahrain will enable its subcribers to carry out financial transactions using their mobile phones. The Zain Wallet service, the first in the Middle East, will soon be announced formally, allowing people to transfer funds to the Philippines and later will be available for India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
“We have tied up with Nonoo Exchange and Bank Muscat International to offer this revolutionary facility, which in time could be used to make purchases across supermarkets and pay for services,” says company special projects marketing manager Bashar Alami.
“Zain Bahrain has received approvals from the Central bank of Bahrain and we are working closely with Nonoo Excnange. Zain users will have to open an account at any branch of Nonoo Exchange or a Zain Experience Shop and will be given a special Zain Wallet PIN number. That number will act as a virtual bank account where users can deposit money at any time, much like they do in a regular bank.”
He also added that the tranferred funds will be beneficial as user will only have to “press a few buttons on his mobile and the money is transferred automatically to the beneficiary’s account anywhere in the world. It’s as simple as that and can be used on even the ‘lowest end’ mobiles available in the market,” said Mr Alami.
Zain Wallet will readily be available at a minimum BD1 deposit and is easily accessible even to people who are unable to operate bank accounts and also enables them to swap their mobile SIM cards free of charge at any of Zain’s outlets.
“In the future, users will have an option to pay at supermarkets, order things over the Internet and even pay their services bills,” he said.
It also allows users to deposit money in the Wallet at any time and transfer their salary to it.
Suntel along with Transfer To launches cross border recharge service (Sri Lanka)
- October 20th, 2008
- 6:14 am
Suntel Ltd., Sri Lanka’s fastest growing telecommunication company, chooses Transfer To, a leading global mobile airtime network, to offer a cross border recharge service. This solution enables Suntel subscribers to receive airtime credit directly on their prepaid account from their relatives abroad.
Thanks to Transfer To, users can send small amounts of value within seconds to Sri Lanka. Senders just need to key in the amount and destination number and send it out via SMS. Credit is transmitted in real-time, both sending and receiving parties are immediately notified by text messages.
Around 80% of phone users in Sri Lanka are prepaid subscribers. There are 2.1 million Sri Lankan living overseas, half of them mainly in the Gulf region (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates). Sri Lankan government is predicting over US dollars 3 billion remittances next year. Overseas workers traditionally remit part of their earnings every month directly to the household head in Sri Lanka. However, they lack appropriate solution for sending smaller amounts to the rest of their family on special occasions. Transfer To comes as the perfect solution for giving out airtime recharge as a gift for birthdays, festivals, celebrations and so on.
Being an innovative telecommunication operator, Suntel quickly grasped this reality, offering a service truly relevant to its subscribers. ‘We believe we can bring a whole new experience to our customers, helping them to strengthen their ties with fellow Sri Lankan overseas with absolute convenience,’ says Dr. Tariq Marikar, Director Product Development and CIO, Suntel. ‘This new service reflects our dedication to unfold breakthrough solutions benefiting our customers.’
Transfer To service is distributed through multiple channels such as phone to phone, point of sales and calling cards (IVR). It is deployed at an international level in the Middle-East, Asia, Africa and Europe. ‘A global network is required to aggregate mobile operators’ airtime all over the world. Transfer To creates bridges for telecommunication operators from developed and emerging countries, positively affecting their business at a global scale,’ says Eric Barbier, Managing Director, Transfer To.
Together with Suntel as a strong prescriber for the solution, Transfer To distributors relay detailed marketing information, helping to raise awareness, educate end-users and spread the solution. Recommendation is made possible among foreign communities, from peer to peer or through convenient shops, money transfer operators and proximity centres. This gives Suntel a wide exposure for its international credit transfers.
Transfer To will be present at GITEX in Dubai from 19-23 October and will also attend AfricaCom in Cape Town, South Africa from 18-19 November.
About Suntel
Suntel is a joint venture company that brings together the resources and expertise of Swedish telecom giant Overseas Telecom AB, Metrocorp (Pvt) Ltd., Townsend Limited of Hong Kong, the National Development Bank, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) - a member of the World Bank Group. The combination of technical and operational expertise evident in Suntel, supported by a sound financial base, has helped create a company, which is committed to being Sri Lanka’s preferred telecommunication service provider, through service excellence and cost-effective delivery.
For further information on Suntel, visit http://www.suntel.lk
About Transfer To
Transfer To operates a global airtime network interconnecting the mobile operators’ prepaid services. Foreign workers may now recharge the prepaid mobile phone of their relatives back home. Airtime remittance enables migrants to send small value amounts - 200 million migrants remit $300 billion every year. The solution is distributed by mobile operators as an innovative and differentiating service for their ethnic segment - an underserved market with a high telecom usage. Transfer To is also available at point of sales: proximity retailers, calling cards distributors, money transfer operators…Prepaid roamers can also use the solution to reload their phone while travelling abroad.
About Wireless Federation
Wireless Federation is an industry research conglomerate headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The mandate of the Wireless Federation is to provide its members and customers industry knowledge that can further enhance their understanding of the wireless industry. Wireless Federation conducts bespoke research and produces boxed reports in collabaration with Industry Bodies, Telecom Operators for Issues that revolve around ARPU, CHURN and Loyalty.
They have been associated with more than 225 mobile operators globally to set their Pricing/ Tariff Strategies, Go-To-Market Strategies for Mobile Advertising, Mobile Payments, Cutting VAS among others amongst 59 countries globally.
For more information you can log on to www.wirelessfederation.com
Bharti to roll out services in Sri Lanka by December (Sri Lanka, India)
- October 14th, 2008
- 6:20 am
Bharti has corraborated that it expects to launch services in Sri Lanka by December, once interconnection issues with local telcos have been sorted out. According to Bharti Airtel Chief Executive Officer Manoj Kohli, ‘We find the (Sri Lankan) regulator extremely supportive’. He further said that ‘We are on track to launch the services, Interconnection issues have been nearly sorted out and the roll out is likely by December 2008’.
Dialog Telekom hits a subscriber base of 5 million (Sri Lanka)
- October 7th, 2008
- 10:06 am
Telekom Malaysia’s Sri Lankan unit , Dialog Telekom hits the subscriber base of 5 million at a yearly growth rate of 17.4%. According to the CEO Dialog Telekom, the telco had no share buy back plans for price boosting.
Bharti Airtel expects to launch services in Sri Lanka by 2008 end (India)
- September 11th, 2008
- 9:49 am
Bharti Airtel, India, is expected to launch it’s telecom services in Sri Lanka by the end of 2008.
“We are discussing with the government, the regulator as well as the operator. The discussions are progressing,” says Manoj Kohli.
Sri Lankan operators decline Airtel’s claims of anti-competitive industry (Sri Lanka)
- September 5th, 2008
- 10:56 am
The Sri Lankan mobile operators have denied the Airtel claims of the industry being anti-competetive and blocking new players.
Dialog, Mobitel, Tigo and Hutch together said, “As strong believers in competition and the resulting dividends to consumers and market growth, Sri Lanka’s mobile operators welcome additional competition.”
“It is also their aspiration that the industry would remain consistent in its focus on quantifiable and real delivery in the best interest of the consumer,” they added.
The response to the Airtel’s statement about the Sri Lankan mobile operator providing no interconnection to Airtel ‘on the same terms as they practice among themselves,’ among other charges.
“Distractions in the form of inter-operator aspersions in particular those which are misleading can only serve to disrupt an industry which is a regional leader and can serve to undo the good work carried out by regulators and investors alike rather than enable further growth across and beyond the 50% (per-capita penetration) milestone on which the industry and Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) is focused upon with much anticipation and excitement,” the statement added.
Dialog Telekom subscriber base grew by 31% in H1 (Sri Lanka)
- August 18th, 2008
- 6:45 am
Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka, posted it’s subscriber base growth which grew by 31% to reach 4.8 million subscribers at the end of June 2008.
In the H1, consolidated group revenue rose by 13% year-on-year to LKR18.27 billion (USD179 million), with growth restricted by tariff reductions and other affordability strategies implemented in late 2007.
EBITDA, in H1, represented a decline of 26% compared to the LKR7.24 billion.
H1 net income was impacted even harder by the rising costs, falling 66% year-on-year to LKR1.64 billion.
