Category: Technology

WASHINGTON, April 1, 2009 (AFP) – The United States began taking visa applications Wednesday for highly skilled foreigners, with lawmakers pressing to close the door to some of the long-coveted workers amid the recession.Robert Hoffman, a vice president at software giant Oracle and co-chair of Compete America, a coalition of tech companies lobbying to hire […]

Mar 31, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan teleco Lanka Bell and EPIC Lanka Technologies, an information technology firm has tied up to provide wireless point of sale terminals to acquire credit card transactions. EPIC Lanka is an 11-year old company dealing in secure electronic payments and information systems security. Lanka Bell operates a fixed access […]

Mar 30, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s software export industry said it is trying to promote the island as a BPO (business process outsourcing) destination for finance and accounting outsourcing (FAO). The Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) and the Information and Communication Technology Agency recently held meetings in London and Barcelona […]

Mar 24, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka will host an international telecom forum of network standardization in April together with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Union (CTO), the telecom regulator said. The forum will discuss trends and the future of networks within the context of sharing experiences on the standardization, architecture, […]

March 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s software industry has teamed up with the British Council to promote technology entrepreneurship among university students. The “Graduate Enterprise Challenge 09” is a contest aimed at grooming the next generation of ‘technology entrepreneurs’, the British Council and Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM) said in […]

Mar 13, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankan fixed access telco, Lanka Bell has started two packages with batches of free outgoing minutes, intensifying competition in the fixed telephony sector, with market oriented pricing strategies, officials said. It has started a 1,000-minutes-free package for 999 rupees branded ‘Infinity Plus’, where the customer can call any time […]

Mar 09, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lankans low income customers of mobile communications, used phones least for business related activities in the region, potentially opening up a new marketing opportunity for celcos, a new study has found. “People who use phones for such activities have a higher income and people who don’t have a lower […]

Mar 03, 2009 (LBO) – Fitch Ratings has cut the credit outlook of Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the island’s largest fixed access operator, to ‘negative’ from ‘stable’ after the sovereign rating outlook was lowered last week. Fitch said SLT’s long-term foreign currency rating of ‘B+’ and local currency rating of ‘BB-‘ were unchanged. Its domestic […]

Mar 03, 2009 (LBO) – The ‘AAA(lka)’ rating on Sri Lanka’s Dialog Telekom was cut by two notches to ‘AA(lk)’ Fitch Ratings, following price competition which is weakening margins and rising costs, Fitch Ratings said. Dialog’s rating of its outstanding redeemable preference shares reflected the subordinate nature of the instrument. Though Dialog has started a […]

Feb 24, 2009 (LBO) – The disaster management capabilities of Sri Lanka’s regional government offices have been boosted with broadband services which will improve communications and decision-making, a United Nations agency said. “Before we had to physically meet and that was a costly and time consuming exercise,” said Mellawathanthri. “The ADSL connection and the webcam […]

Feb 19, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) will ask mobile phone operators to give adequate connections to calls from customers of new entrant Bharti Airtel, an official said. “I think what would have happened is Airtel is overwhelmed with more traffic than they had originally estimated, and now they are crying […]

Feb 16, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s mobile phone operators have declined to respond to accusations by newest market entrant, India’s Bharti Airtel, that they are resorting to interconnectivity sabotage, citing a gag order by the regulator. Company officials said the Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (TRC) has asked celcos not to comment on recent accusations […]