Test Run

Dialog Telekom Ltd., whose shares surged 25 percent on their trading debut today, plans to offer high-speed Internet access on mobile phones as it seeks to cement its place as Sri Lanka's No. 1 cellular-service provider. Dialog Telekom Ltd., whose shares surged 25 percent on their trading debut today, plans to offer high-speed Internet access on mobile phones as it seeks to cement its place as Sri Lanka's No. 1 cellular-service provider. Dialog will conduct a trial run next month of the so-called third-generation, or 3G, mobile system, Chief Executive Officer Hans Wijayasuriya said.

The network can access the Internet more than 100 times faster than older networks and enable customers to conduct videoconferences on mobile phones.

The Colombo-based company, which will be the first to offer such services in Sri Lanka, is striving to maintain its dominant market share in a nation of 20 million people as competition intensifies. Dialog competes with Celltel Lanka Ltd.

, Sri Lanka Telecom Ltd.'s Mobitel unit and Hong Kong's Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd. in a market Wijayasuriya expects will triple to 6.5 million users by 2008.

"It's a very competitive market," Wijayasuriya, 37