Broader Access

Feb 08, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka's largest mobile operator, Dialog Telekom which helped make mobile phones a ubiquitous device in the country, says it wants to do the same to the digital pay TV industry. "If I were to trace back ten years, we took that device that was considered a luxury - a digital cellular phone - and we took it to every corner of the country," Dialog Telekom CEO, Hans Wijesuriya said at the launch of Dialog's pay television service.

"Digital or anything new is really created in order make to make things more affordable and available."

Sri Lanka, which has a population of under 20 million, now has more than five million mobile phones, and the industry is growing close to 50 percent a year.

A prepaid mobile connection can now be bought for as little as three dollars, and a phone for about 50 dollars compared 1750 US dollars when analogue mobile phones were launched in Sri Lanka.

Last year Dialog bought CBN Sat, for 523 million after it was closed by authorities under amidst controversy last year. It also bought a terrestrial TV firm Asset Media.

CBN sat had about 20,000 customers when Dialog bought the firm, and Dialog is planning to use its own distribution n