Category: Technology

March 20, 2007 (LBO) – A Malaysian firm has been given the go ahead to conduct a due diligence of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) ahead of a possible sale of a stake held by Japan’s NTT, the company said Tuesday. NTT Communications Corporation of Japan owns a 35 percent stake in Sri Lanka Telecom, but […]

March 19 (LBO) – Gloom over the spectacular telecom busts in the last decade has given way to a new round of optimism worldwide and the new mantra for the telecom industry is convergence. That optimism is driving change in Sri Lanka’s largest fixed line telecom firm, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). However a network overhaul […]

March 14 (LBO) – Seven suitors are chasing Sri Lanka’s wireless operator Suntel, but its parent Telia of Sweden may even consider a stock market listing in Colombo if a sale does not go through, a top official said. TeliaSonera, the holding company of Overseas Telia which owns Suntel, is among six firms listed for […]

March 13 (LBO) – Intense competition among Sri Lanka’s telcos will drive growth, with Dialog leading the pack and lifting earnings of its parent Malaysia Telecom, the investment bank Morgan Stanley said in a report. Sri Lanka is expected to top foreign contribution to Malaysia Telekom with 13 percent, followed by Bangladesh at six percent […]

March 09, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lankan fixed wireless operator Suntel, unit of Sweden’s Telia is hoping to earn 15 percent of its revenue over the medium term from managed services in information technology, officials said. Suntel’s debentures are listed on the stock exchange. The service branded ‘Suntel enabled’ allows firms to concentrate on core […]

March 05 (LBO) – The possible exit of Japan’s NTT from Sri Lanka Telecom continues to garner investor interest with market expectations of a possible buyout by Malaysian mobile operator, Maxis. But SLT has declined to comment specifically on the deal, saying NTT was satisfied with SLT’s performance. “I think amongst those projects the companies […]

COLOMBO, March 1, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka suspended sales of telephones and mobile phone cards in the embattled north and east on Thursday as troops stepped up attacks against Tiger rebels, an official said. The move was temporary and aimed at preventing guerrillas making use of phone services for military operations, telecoms watchdog chief […]

February, 27 (LBO) – Advocates of free and open source software (FOSS) are promoting the concept through a mobile campaign across Sri Lanka starting next month, organizers said Tuesday. ‘Foss-Ed on Wheels’ a special bus had traveled nearly 500 to Mahavilachchiya in the north central province and Buttala in the Southern province last year, teaching […]

COLOMBO, Feb 24, 2007 (AFP) – Working mother Kumari Ranasinghe looks forward every day to a telephone call from someone who hangs up on her immediately — her 12-year-old son who is making the call to let her know he has left school.“It’s also a disaster when the networks are busy and you can’t get […]

February, 22 (LBO) – After growing at breakneck speed for the past several years, Sri Lanka’s mobile phone market is losing pace and competitors are pecking away at dominant player Dialog’s market share, an equities research report has said. In 2006 Sri Lanka’s mobile penetration hit 27.1 percent according to official Telecommunications Regulatory Commission data. […]

February 20 (LBO) – Microsoft’s new Vista operating system, which comes with built in Sinhala language capability would open a high technology window for rural Sri Lankans, officials said. “The main objective of having Sinhala language in our own operating system is to enable people to interact with the computer,” says Imran Vilcassim, a Microsoft […]

COLOMBO, Feb 20, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s telecom sector soared in 2006 to 7.3 million users, led by a 59 percent jump in new mobile phone connections on competition and falling call rates, the telecom watchdog said Tuesday. Despite a waiting list of around 366,000 for fixed-line phone services, the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Regulatory […]