Category: Technology

HONG KONG, January 8, 2010 (AFP) – Hong Kong ports-to-retail conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa on Friday offered to take its loss-making telecoms subsidiary private in a deal valued at 545 million US dollars. The group, headed by tycoon Li Ka-shing, said the proposal to take over Hutchison Telecom would allow it to manage the troubled firm’s […]

Dec 30, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s telecom regulator has begun investigations on broadband speeds advertised by telcos after a private research study found them exaggerating available bandwidth to surfers, a senior official said. Sri Lankan telcos deliver 75 percent of advertised speeds in the last mile of the network. LIRNEAsia said broadband providers in […]

Dec 29, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is the most uncertain market among South Asian countries for new telcos, while Pakistan has the most transparent process for entry and spectrum, despite high fees, a study has found.“Pakistan is the most expensive to enter in South Asia, but it’s the most transparent,” Helani Galpaya, chief operating […]

Dec 22, 2009 (LBO) – Two Malaysian telecom firms have expressed interest in taking part in a communications satellite project promoted by Sri Lanka’s telecom regulatory commission, a top official said.Sri Lanka wants to launch a geo-stationary satellite in the next three years, at an estimated cost of some 150 million US dollars and has […]

Dec 18, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is planning a space project with a British firm in a 150 million US dollar deal that could see a satellite launched into a geo-stationary orbit above the island in 30-months, an official said. The so called Clarke orbit, named after science fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke is […]

Dec 17, 2009 (LBO) – Mobitel, a unit of fixed access provider Sri Lanka Telecom said it has successfully tested and launched a high speed broad band technology that will double peak download rate that can be offered on its mobile network. The upgraded high speed packet access (HSPA) technology uses multiple antennas in both […]

Dec 17, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is looking at setting an interconnection rate of around 60 cents a minute for mobile operators from February next year, the regulator said, as the industry was gripped in a price war. “We are looking at 60 cents a minute,” director general of Sri Lanka’s telecom regulatory commission […]

Dec 16, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka Telecom, Dialog Telekom, India’s Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Sweden’s Ericsson, are among the firms in the running to get a fibre optic backbone for the island, an official said.“We are hoping to award the deal by April 2010,” director general of Sri Lanka’s Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) […]

Dec 15, 2009 (LBO) – Capital investment in Sri Lanka’s telecom infrastructure has plummeted amidst a price war and high taxation, which will crimp expansion in the future and broadband roll out in the island, top telecom operators said.“Before the price war each operator was spending about 150 to 200 million (US dollars) a year […]

Dec 14, 2009 (LBO) – Mobile phone message services like one deployed by the financial news agency Reuters to over a million farmers in India, could help Sri Lankan farmers earn more for their produce, experts said. Ranjit Pawar of Reuters Market Light, India said their SMS (short message service) in India provide farmers timely […]

Dec 11, 2009 (LBO) – Asia’s drive towards a knowledge economy is being helped by expanding and cheaper telecoms but fresh evidence-based policy interventions could speed this up, regulators and academics said at a policy forum in Colombo. Avoiding Miss-steps “The biggest contribution from research is not what is adopted, but what is not adopted,” […]

Dec 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan, which is trying to attract more information technology outsource business, said a recent survey shows an increasing number of British small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considering outsourcing work. One in five British SMEs are considering offshoring in 2010 as they seek to reduce labour costs to enable […]