September 01, 2007 (LBO) – The newly set up Bharti Airtel Sri Lanka unit had hired a top Unilever official to head its operation in the island, Lanka Business Online learns. The rest is shared between Mobitel, a unit of fixed operator Sri Lanka Telecom; Tigo, a unit of Millicom International Cellular and Hutch, a unit of Hutchison Telecom. Amali Nanayakkara directed Unilever Ceylon's personal care division and had headed its foods division earlier.
Nanayakkara was a pioneer female director on Unilever Ceylon's board.
Bharti Airtel Lanka is hoping to start commercial services in the first quarter of 2008 and is hoping for a 70 percent network coverage with an investment of around 200 million dollars.
Sri Lanka mobile industry is dominated by Dialog Telekom, a unit of Telekom Malaysia which has a 60 percent share of the market.
