Airtel appoints Suren Goonewardene as CEO for Sri Lanka unit (India, Sri Lanka)

On 01.23.12, In Mobile, By Editor

AirtelBhati Airtel, India’s leading mobile operator has appointed Suren Goonewardene as CEO for its operations in Sri Lanka. According to company reports, Sanjay Kapoor, CEO – India & South Asia, Bharti Airtel has said that  Suren  brings  with  him  rich domain experience of telecom industry and has an exceptionally strong track record of business successes in  each  of  his  previous  roles.

He added that given Suren’s vast experience, sharp focus on business goals and able leadership – they are confident that Airtel’s Sri Lanka team will move from strength to strength and deliver on their aggressive growth plans for the country.

Bharti Airtel Lanka, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, commenced commercial operations of services in Sri Lanka in January 2009, and grew to become the fastest operator to reach the 1 million customer milestone in the country. Since then, Airtel has expanded its presence to 1500+ base stations across Sri Lanka and introduced a wide range of innovative service offerings towards enriching the lives of its customers.

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Mobitel launches mobile MBA (Sri Lanka)

On 09.13.11, In Mobile Operators, Mobile services, By Editor

Mobitel, a leading Sri Lankan mobile service provider has come together with Scotland’s Edinburgh Napier University to launch the first of its kind mobile MBA for aspiring Sri Lankan executives. This new MBA programme allows students to follow lectures in an interactive virtual classroom and will be delivered via Mobitel’s mLearning platform. The online degree will be on par with other Edinburgh Napier University MBA degrees enabling busy executives to graduate with a UK qualification. Further, students will also have the option to spend a semester at the Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland.

As per reports, Professor George Stonehouse, Dean of Edinburgh Napier University’s Business School, has said that they are delighted to extend one of their post graduate programmes to Sri Lanka as well. The unique feature about pursuing one’s studies via the mLearning platform is that all environments have been created to promote interactivity among students and lecturers whilst enhancing a student’s learning experience without requiring physical presence in the university. He further added that the most important fact is that due to its design and unparalleled functionalities, ambitious students with the thirst to broaden their knowledge can now confidently do so with the help of Mobitel’s mLearning platform.

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel’s Senior General Manager, Corporate Planning & Marketing Mr. Janaka Jayalath has reportedly said that through Mobitel’s mLearning platform, they have harnessed the education pertaining to many industries in their nation, via partnerships with prominent educational institutes. Their partnership with a reputed university such as the Edinburgh Napier University, will enable students to pursue their higher studies at their own convenience by bridging the gap between time and accessibility, via mLearning.

 

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Sri Lanka Telecom lines up $46 million for mobile network upgrade (Sri Lanka)

On 07.14.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Sri Lanka Telecom is known to have lined up $46 million to inject more money into its Mobitel, its mobile phone subsidiary, to upgrade its toward modernization and spreading out.

According to sources, the investment will be dished out in a phased manner; anticipated to be poured in, in six months time.

The primary focus of the investment is said to be coverage expansion, in addition to enhancing Mobitel’s capacity by way of modernizing.

As per sources, the mobile operator boasts of 4 million customers as on March which constitutes 23% of the market share.

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Bharti Airtel prepares the ground for Indian and Asian operations restructure (India)

On 07.08.11, In Mobile, By Editor

­Bharti Airtel’s operations in India and South Asia are to get an overhaul in terms of organizational structure. The operator has announced the institution of two unique Customer Business Units (CBU) in a bid to boost B2C (Business to Customer) and B2B Business to Business divisions.

Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, Bharti Airtel believes that their transformational business models have always been the operator’s highlight, in addition to setting industry benchmarks in this regard. He also stated that the organizational restructure is a step forward for Bharti Airtel towards building an organization of the future.

Bharti Airtel is looking to service the retail consumers as well as the homes and small offices by way of its B2C business unit. This move will augment the coming together of mobile, telemedia, digital TV business units, in addition to upcoming businesses like M-commerce, M-health, M-advertising and so on. In essence, Consumer Business and Market Operations will constitute the B2C segment.

K Srinivas has been appointed President, Consumer Business who would be heading this particular vertical. The Consumer Business group will be responsible for devising the operator’s B2C strategy with the aim to further customer experience; product and service innovation that takes data, VAS, new products and services into account, in addition to building an ecosystem based on the B2C services.

Three regions have been defined as divisions with regard to the market operations in India and South Asia, each of which will be led by an operations director. Ajai Puri is set to head the North, East & Bangladesh operations while Vineet Taneja, South & Sri Lanka operations, in addition to Raghunath Mandava who will head operations in the West and the National Distribution portfolio.

On the other hand, Drew Kelton is to continue leading the B2B segment that will concentrate on looking after large corporate and carriers by employing the operator’s wide portfolio of telecommunication solutions.

Sanjay Kapoor, CEO – India & South Asia will be the reporting manager for K Srinivas, Ajai Puri, Raghunath Mandava and Vineet Taneja, in addition to Drew Kelton, all of whom would be donning a new cap.

Atul Bindal, the head of the mobility business for more than two years will also be taking up new responsibilities within the Group.

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Vodafone extends World Calling Club promotion (Qatar)

On 05.31.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Vodafone Qatar has extended its World Calling Club international call rates to more than 180 countries for just US$17.69 a minute until June 30.

All of the most popular calling destinations are included in this promotion, which included Bahrain, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Iran, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America and Yemen.

Vodafone is also extending until 30 June its International Calling Card 25 offer that gives customers 51 minutes of talk time at a rate of US$0.13 a minute. The countries included in this are India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand, Syria, Sudan, Turkey, Bahrain, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

 

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Mobitel launches mHealth platform with Nawaloka Hospitals

On 05.31.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Mobitel, a Sri Lankan mobile operator has collaborated with Nawaloka Hospitals to introduce an mHealth Platform capable of delivering medical data over Mobitel’s network.

The hospitals will use the mHealth platform to send MRI and CT scanning data via the mobile network to radiologists or physicians.

 

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Airtel Lanka launches bill payment options via mobile

On 05.25.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Bharti Airtel Lanka in partnership with Commercial Bank has announced bill payment facilities for all Airtel and Commercial Bank customers. This service will offer access to multiple touch points to top up their accounts either by reload or bill settlement to all prepaid and post paid customers of Airtel. The service will be available throughout Sri Lanka.

The service allows mutually exclusive customers of Airtel and Commercial Bank the option of reloading their prepaid accounts or settling all postpaid bill payments by simply typing PIN<space> Rs<amount> on SMS and sending it to 8823 from their Airtel mobiles.

Customers of Commercial Bank can also opt to access internet banking facilities in settling their Airtel bill payments, in addition to making payments at any one of the 420 ATMs located island wide.

According to an Airtel, the benefits of this service have also been extended to all Airtel customers for prepaid reload facilities and postpaid bill settlement to take place at any of Commercial Bank’s 198 Branches operational throughout Sri Lanka.

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Bharti Airtel to introduce m-payments service (Sri Lanka)

On 05.25.11, In Mobile, By Editor

Bharti Airtel in Sri-Lanka has introduced a mobile payments service. The company launched  the service in partnership with the Bank of Ceylon (BOC) and Ceylon’s mobile payment facility, BOC Paymate.

This is SMS  service and will allows Airtel customers with a BOC account to pay phone bills, top-up prepaid accounts, pay utility bills, conduct balance enquiries, and transfer funds via their mobile phone.

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ZTE, Mobitel test LTE infrastructure network (Sri Lanka)

On 05.18.11, In Mobile, By Editor

ZTE with Mobitel are conducting LTE infrastructure network trials in Sri Lanka. The trial system will feature a peak bit rate speed of up to 96Mbps and incorporate LTE services such as HD streaming media play, file upload and download, as well as web browsing.

Mobitel chose ZTE’s advanced Uni RAN + Uni Core systems and the 2600M frequency LTE indoor coverage system to install the LTE test network in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo.

Uni RAN and ETCA/T8000-based Uni Core system could support products of different platforms such as CDMA, GSM, and LTE.

Mobitel was able to use one access network and one core network (RAN & Core) with this system, to realise network expansion and evolution. In terms of future network upgrading, only a single baseband processing board is needed to be added or replaced, with the remaining components being realized through software upgrades.

Moreover, Mobitel and ZTE have entered into agreement to supply, install and commission LTE compliant network.

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208 operators in 80 countries currently investing in LTE- Report

On 05.12.11, In Mobile, By Editor

A recent report by Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) has revealed that around 208 operators are now investing in LTE, which is 98 operators more than in June 2010.

According to the report, the number of countries and territories where LTE systems are deployed or planned has increased by 32 in the same period.

The report confirms 154 firm LTE network deployments are in progress or planned in 60 countries, including 20 networks which have commercially launched. A further 54 operators in 20 more countries are engaged in LTE technology pilot trials or tests.

Taken together, it means that 208 operators in 80 countries are now investing in LTE. The report covers both LTE FDD and LTE TDD systems. The 60 countries and territories having firm LTE network commitments are Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong S.A.R., Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore , South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, UAE, UK, Uruguay, USA, and Uzbekistan.

LTE networks are launched in 14 countries, namely Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Sweden, USA, and Uzbekistan. GSA forecasts that at least 81 LTE networks will be in commercial service by end-2012.

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