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Tag: Mobitel

  • Mobitel to invest $50m in 5G this year

    Mobitel to invest $50m in 5G this year

    Sri Lankan national mobile service provider Mobitel has revealed plans to invest $50 million this year to deploy a 5G network and upgrade its network infrastructure.

    The operator, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom, has commenced 5G trials ahead of a planned rollout.

    While Sri Lanka was the first country in South Asia to introduce 3G and 3.5G technology, Mobitel does not expect it to be the first to introduce 5G, the report states.

    Meanwhile Mobitel has been investing heavily to upgrade its 3G network to 4G, having spent around $100 million to convert around 100 3G base stations. The operator plans to continue the 4G upgrade, with plans to soon switch off its 3G network.

    Mobitel has now invested around $600 million over its 25 year history. But despite heavy investments and foreign exchange losses, the company managed to increase its revenue by around 10% last year.

    Mobitel is the second largest mobile operator in Sri Lanka after Dialog Axiata, with around 22.6% market share.

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  • Mobitel launches LTE on 900-MHz spectrum

    Mobitel launches LTE on 900-MHz spectrum

    Sri Lanka’s Mobitel has enhanced its LTE network with the nation’s first deployment of LTE over re-purposed 900-MHz spectrum.

    The operator said the deployment will significantly enhance Sri Lanka’s LTE coverage and make Mobitel the top network for LTE broadband in the nation.

    Mobitel chairman P G Kumarasinghe Sirisena said the deployment will particularly help the operator bring affordable LTE broadband services to rural areas of the country.

    This will also help the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka meet its objective of bridging the digital divide between citizens in urban and rural areas.

    Mobitel is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom. The operator launched Sri Lanka’s first LTE services in the 1800-MHz band in 2013.

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  • Mobitel to be split from SLT and publicly listed

    Mobitel to be split from SLT and publicly listed

    Sri Lanka’s Mobitel plans to separate from parent company Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and list on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

    The operator is gearing up for a public listing this year with the goal of diversifying its ownership beyond SLT, citing official sources.

    The government of Sri Lanka, which owns a 49.5% stake in SLT, plans to exit partially or fully from Mobitel as part of a broader sell-off of its investments in state-owned enterprises.

    The government is seeking to raise at least $1 billion to settle what it says is uneconomical debt it inherited from its predecessor.

    Minister of telecommunications and digital infrastructure Harin Fernando meanwhile told that the separation is also aimed at helping tackle overcrowding in the nation’s telecoms industry and improving the competitiveness of Mobitel.

    Mobitel commenced operations in 1993 and became a fully-owned subsidiary of SLT in 2002. The company currently accounts for around 45% of SLT’s annual revenues, the highest contribution among the group’s eight subsidiaries.

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  • Mobitel appoints Nalin Perera as CEO

    Mobitel appoints Nalin Perera as CEO

    Sri Lankan mobile operator Mobitel has appointed Nalin Perera as its CEO. Perera started his career at Mobitel in 2001 as general manager of marketing and was later promoted to the positions of senior general manager of marketing and senior general manager of contact center operations respectively. He also held the position of CMO and took over the responsibilities of COO at Mobitel in 2015.

    Commenting on the appointment, Mobitel said Perera’s strong track record “makes him the natural choice to lead the company on a forward momentum to the next phase of its evolution.”

    “He brings to the table strong insights into product and channel development, human resource management and more importantly, his understanding of the telecommunication industry as a whole, apart from his expertise in mobile telephony. His contribution to Mobitel has earned the company many accolades, including several local and international awards.”

    Perera brings 30 years of experience in mobile industry to his CEO role. He commenced his career in mobile telephony with Celltel in 1989, and led the introduction of the prepaid concept to Sri Lanka and its entire supportive ecosystem, which revolutionized the mobile industry and was the main contributor for the rapid growth in the sector in the country.

    BT appoints James Hennah to head Southeast Asia operations

    BT has appointed James Hennah as managing director for its South East Asia operations. He succeeds Ron Totton, who has recently taken on a new role as vice president in charge of BT’s operations in Switzerland, Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe and Russia (SNCR).

    Hennah will lead BT’s South East Asia team from Singapore, focusing mainly on Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.

    Hennah joined BT in 1997, and was most recently CEO for BT’s global Media & Broadcast business and MD of carrier, channel and MVNO sales in BT’s Wholesale & Ventures division.

    Mark Russell to have an expanded role as MD of GCX International

    Mark Russell, president of Europe at Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), is expanding his role at the company after working for the Reliance Communications subsidiary for two years.

    Russell will take over the role as managing director of GCX International in charge of the company’s global sales across all segments, while continue to working for the company as president of Europe, GCX said Wednesday in announcing the appointment.

    Russell joined GCX in 2015 as president of Europe, where he has been instrumental in building the company’s capabilities and driving organic and inorganic growth across GCX’s European footprint, the company added.

    Russell has over 25 years of telecoms and technology experience. Prior to joining GCX, he had held senior management roles at companies including NetApp, UK software company Empower Interactive and MCI (now Verizon Business).

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  • Mobitel, Dialog Axiata trial 1Gbps+ 4.5G

    Mobitel, Dialog Axiata trial 1Gbps+ 4.5G

    In a South Asia first, Sri Lanka’s Mobitel and Dialog Axiata have each completed successful trials of 4.5G technology capable of speeds of over 1Gbps.

    Mobitel announced it has tested a technology it calls LTE-A Pro at the operator’s test lab.

    The operator partnered with Huawei and ZTE to test LTE-A technology capable of using a combination of up to five-carrier aggregation, 4×4 MIMO and 256 QAM. The company plans a commercial deployment in the near future.

    Dialog meanwhile revealed it has completed capability testing on Huawei’s LTE equipment, demonstrating the ability to deliver throughputs exceeding 1Gbps over the LTE radio interface.

    Mobitel asserts it was the first operator in South Asia to trial LTE technology in 2011, while Dialog Axiata said it was the first in the region to launch commercial LTE services in 2014. Dialog’s LTE network now covers more than 50% of the population.

    Dialog and Mobitel are Sri Lanka’s first and second largest mobile operators by subscribers respectively.

    The ITU has named Sri Lanka as having the lowest broadband tariffs among operators in the Asia-Pacific region.

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