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Airtel to launch 3G mobile network in Sri Lanka

Published on Jan 12, 2009

India's Bharti Airtel launches its GSM-based mobile services in the island nation of Sri Lanka

Published on Mar 17, 2011

New Delhi, 12 January India's leading telecom company Bharti Airtel today announced the launch of its mobile services in Sri Lanka making it the fifth mobile operator in the island nation. The company will invest about $200 million for its network rollout in Sri Lanka, a company release said. Bharti Airtel will be offering both 2G and 3G mobile services in Sri Lanka. Currently, all mobile services in India are offered on the 2G platform. The tariff plans unveiled by Airtel for Sri Lankan operations have several key differentiators when compared to other Lankan operators. First, the telco has done away with the concept of peak and off-peak call rates by offering flat tariffs throughout the day. Second, its Sri Lankan customers will no longer have to bother with within network and outside network concept as Airtel will offer uniform call charges to any network. The telco has also said that it would replicate its much successful outsourced Indian business model in Sri Lanka also. In India, Bharti Airtel has outsourced all key functions including network management, IT services and customer care activities to global majors such as IBM, Nokia Siemens and Ericsson. In 2006, Bharti Airtel had bagged the licence to become Sri Lanka's fifth GSM-based service provider. Last year, Bharti had awarded a Rs 600 crore contract to Chinese equipment major Huawei to roll out its networks in Lanka. With mobile penetration of around 35% and growing at a rate of approximately 2 million mobile users per annum, Bharti is betting big on Sri Lanka . Bharti will have to compete with the Telekom Malaysia-owned Dialog Telecom (the largest operator in Sri Lanka ), Celltel Lanka (owned by Luxembourg-based service provider Millicom International Cellular), Hutchison (owned by Hong Kong-based Hutchison Telecommunications ) and Sri Lankan government-owned Mobitel. Many industry experts say that Bharti's 3G launch in Lanka will also serve as a test bed for offering similar services in India when 3G spectrum is made available here.