Category: Technology

April 01, 2008 (LBO) – Malaysia’s Usaha Tegas group bought a 35.2 percent stake in Sri Lanka Telecom for 300 million dollars making it the biggest deal in Sri Lanka’s capital market history and driving valuations to new heights. Usaha Tegas paid 50.50 rupees for 635 million shares of SLT from Japan’s NTT Communications valuing […]

April 01, 2008 (LBO) – Malaysia’s Usaha Tegas (UT) group said it was looking to provide management input to Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and work with its major shareholder, Sri Lanka’s government, after buying a third stake in the telco. The UT group bought a 35.19 percent stake in SLT through Global Telecommunication Holdings (GTH), […]

March 29, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka needs transparent telecom regulation and lower costs to encourage the information technology business and become a ‘knowledge economy’, says a new World Bank study. Transparent and consistent regulation was important to encourage private investment in the IT sector which was important for the development of the industry, knowledge […]

March 25, 2008 (LBO) – Greater use of information technology in Sri Lanka’s largely subsistence agriculture sector will help both farmers and consumers alike by reducing costs, a researcher has said. Harsha De Silva, lead economist at LIRNEasia, a think tank, said a system using IT that addresses the information needs from the decision making […]

March 24, 2007 (LBO) – Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Japan’s largest phone company, is tipped to sell off its flagship investment in Sri Lanka as early as this week, to the owner of Malaysia’s biggest mobile operator. “Supreme Court has allowed the sale to proceed, and we expect the Malaysian investor to wrap up the […]

March 24, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Telecom, the island’s dominant fixed access operator has not been informed of a date for the sale of a stake held by major shareholder NTT Communications of Japan, a top official said. SLT’s new chairperson Leisha De Silva Chandrasena, who represents the interests of the government of Sri […]

March 20, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s internet access quality through broadband within the local boundary is above regional thresholds but sparse local content drives users to access overseas sites at slower speeds, researchers said. “In the ISP (Internet Service Provider) domain from the user to ISP, we have found that the results are relatively […]

Mar 19, 2008 (LBO) – Subscribers of the Sri Lanka mobile unit of Hutchison Telecom doubled to more than a million in 2007, while revenue growth topped 50 percent, the group said in a statement. . Total subscribers had increased by 104 percent to 1,141,000 in 2007 while revenue measured in Hong Kong dollars grew […]

March 17, 2008 (LBO) – India’s Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is looking for a joint venture partner to take up a 50 percent stake in Sri Lanka’s Suntel which it is negotiating to buy, India’s telecom regulator has said. The Department of Telecom (DOT) said in its annual report that MTNL wanted a joint […]

March 14, 2008 (LBO) – Echannelling, Sri Lanka’s fist listed dotcom said its chief executive, Sidath Chandrasena, would be resigning from June 2008. The firm traded between 16.00 and 16.25 a share Friday. Echannelling is a web-based portal that through which appointments for doctors can be booked for a fee.

March 11, 2008 (LBO) – Bharti Airtel Lanka, a subsidiary of India’s Bharti Airtel, said it had pushed back the launch of its mobile service in Sri Lanka to September this year from an original target of March. The firm Tuesday signed a deal with the investment promotion agency, Board of Investment, to spend half […]

Mar 10, 2008 (LBO) – The sale of an equity stake in Sri Lanka Telecom held by Japan’s NTT to Malaysia’s Usaha Tegas group could go ahead, the island’s supreme court has ruled, a reporter at the court said. The UT group was initially expected to purchase 25 percent of the stock with NTT keeping […]