Sri Lanka’s number two mobile operator Celltel said on Thursday it has built 200 new towers in six months, to virtually double its coverage in key towns.
 
Celltel, which launched an analogue network in 1989 to become the first phone company in South Asia to go cellular, is splashing out 100 million dollars this year to add 500 new base stations, with the aim of increasing its subscriber base by 50 percent to 1.5 million users by end 2006.

Owned by international mobile telecoms group Millicom, Celltel to date has spent 70 million dollars on its expansion drive, increasing capacity in Colombo to over 40 percent, outstation areas by over 200 percent.

We have also improved call success rates of 99 percent, and call drop rates below 2-percent,” Chief Executive Dumindra Ratnayka said.

Celltel says it has 100 percent coverage in main towns of Kandy, Galle, Pollonnaruwa, as well as second level towns which include Habarna, Maskeliya, Karapitiya.

“We have also covered 60 percent of third level towns like Pinnawella and Buttala while 30 percent of fourth level towns like Wellawaya too have been covered,??? he said adding that the firm has footprint even in remote areas like Wasgamuwa, Yala, Wellawaya, Minneriya, and Udawalawe”.

The expansion is being funded by locally raised money as well as by loans secured by Luxembourg-based Millicom.

With this year’s investment, Celltel’s total investment in Sri Lanka goes up to around 200 million dollars.

Celltel has built its business almost exclusively on pay-as-you-go customers who account for 75 percent of its new customers each month.

For the six months to June, cellular subscriber growth had exceeded 4.3 million users, according to Central Bank figures, with the industry reporting a brisk 50 percent growth each successive quarter.

Most of the growth has come from pay-as-you-go users or pre-paid card customers who account for between 60-80 percent of each mobile phone operator’s subscriber base.

Growth has been led by falling handset prices and attractive tariff packages, which have helped cellular phone penetration (mobile connections per 100 people), climb to 21.5 percent in June from 17.09 percent at the start of 2006, stockbroker, Capital Alliance Securities said.

Sri Lanka’s four player mobile phone market is dominate by Dialog Telekom (62 percent), followed by Celltel (16 percent), Mobitel (13 percent) and Hutchison (9 percent).

In August, Sri Lanka became the first country in the region to introduce 3G, or third generation, mobile phones, which allow high speed data transmission and video streaming.
 
Sri Lanka is currently evaluating proposals from 10 firms, including India’s Bharti Airtel Ltd and Malaysia’s biggest cellular operator Maxis Communication Bhd, to take up a fifth slot in the mobile phone market.

Source-  lankabusinessonline