HSBC Arranges $100mn Export Credit from Belgium to Etisalat to Expand Network with Equipment from Alcatel Lucent

0th April 2013, www.lankabusinessonline.com

HSBC said it had arranged a 100 million US dollar export credit from Belgium for Etisalat Sri Lanka to expand its network with equipment made by Alcatel-Lucent.

"The strong partnership with HSBC, ONDD and Alcatel-Lucent will now enable us to offer the best in technology and services to our customers."

He said Etisalat became the first operator to launch DC HSPA+ technology, to boost mobile broadband service in Sri Lanka.

The bank said it was the largest such deal so far in the country.

"Etisalat is a considerable force in the telecommunication industry in Sri Lanka, and we are pleased to have led this transaction to support their expansion plans..." Nick Nicolaou, chief executive officer HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives said.

HSBC was sole arranger, sole lender and facility agent for the facility from ONDD, the export credit agency of Belgium.

HSBC had also arranged an additional 25 million US dollar facility in parallel to the export credit.

"Etisalat strongly believes in the growth potential of Sri Lanka and we want to support the ongoing development by providing the latest in technology to the country," chief executive officer Dumindra Ratnayaka, said.

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TRC of Sri Lanka to Allow Spectrum sharing & Domestic Roaming for Lower Broadband Tariffs

28th March 2013, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka is allowing spectrum sharing and domestic roaming to promote shared resources and cut costs so that broadband tariffs can be kept low, the telecom regulator said.

"We are allowing spectrum sharing," director general of the telecommunications regulatory commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) Anusha Pelpita said.

"We will not regulate their tariffs but they will have to apply to us. This will help keep costs down and subscribers will get lower tariffs."

Domestic roaming has already been recently permitted and Airtel and Etisalat have started to allow customers to roam on each others' network, he said.

Dialog on Thursday paid 3.2 billion rupees for a 10MegaHertz paired frequencies block in the 1800MHz band paying 2.0 billion rupees higher than the next bidder, in an auction which had a floor price of 3.2 billion rupees.

Pelpita said the frequencies are expected to be used in the rollout of fourth generation LTE (long term evolution) high speed mobile broadband services.

The 1800 spectrum was allocated for GSM (2G) services by the International Telecommunications Unions, but can be used for 4G.

The 75MHz of paired bandwidth in the frequency band (or 150MHz in the band which runs from 1700 through 1800 MHz has now been allocated to operators.

Dialog Already had a 15MHz block, Mobitel had 20, Etisalat, Hutch and Airtel each had 7.5MHz each and another 7.5MHz allocated to a firm which did not have a network was in court.

Except for the 7.5MHz which was in dispute the entire band has now been allocated to operators, he said.

"Spectrum sharing will allow more efficient use of the resource," Pelpita said.

Operators can set their own prices, but those planning to share spectrum must first apply to the Telecom Regulatory Commission, he said.

In Sri Lanka the 900MHz band, which is used for mobile broadband elsewhere is occupied by television broadcasters, but the band may become free after digital broadcasting starts Pelpita said.

Unlike other countries which raised billions of dollars Sri Lanka has a policy of keeping frequency fees relatively low.

Pelpita said he wanted to promote broadband use and in Sri Lanka fixed broadband penetration was low, though mobile was picking up.

"We have allowed frequency sharing because that will also keep costs down, so that retail tariffs will be more affordable," he said.

"Domestic roaming will also reduce costs as operators can save on network expenditure."

Sri Lanka Telecom, which had been licensed to build the national telecom backbone, has to allow other operators to use the pipes on regulated tariffs.

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Etisalat Launches Sri Lanka's First e-Book Store for Local Publishers & Authors

16th February 2012, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Etisalat's Sri Lankan unit has teamed up with booksellers and a software firm to launch an electronic book store for local publishers and authors, officials said.

The online e-book store, called 'Book Hub' to be commercially launched by end of March, will be in all three languages and available on any telecommunications network to ensure greater accessibility.

Etisalat Wednesday signed a deal with publishers M D Gunasena to launch the electronic book store whose technology was developed by Microimage, a software firm.

"This is for all books published in Sri Lanka in all three languages - Sinhala, Tamil and English," said Etisalat chief executive Dumindra Ratnayaka.

"We hope to list as many books as possible. We've had discussions with most publishers and all are keen to list the books they publish.

"We have a very literate population, we have a passion to read. We will now able to give them books anytime, anywhere and at a lower cost. We are trying to bring smart devices to the country to suit all walks of life."

Ratnayaka said they were having talks with the education ministry to list education texts in electronic format.

"It is far easier for a child to carry a tablet to school than a load of books," he said. "It will be easier for the education ministry to update these books than printed matter.

"We will empower up and coming authors," Ratnayaka said. "One of their biggest problems is that publishers are not willing to print their work because of the cost of holding it. Now with the 'Book Hub' we can open the doors to them."

Rajiv Gunasena, deputy managing director of M D Gunasena, said the book store chain was moving with the times, having seen the extinction of well-known international book stores that did not go electronic.

"Unless publishers and book stores can marry the digital and physical books, we will become extinct," he said.

Books will be available for download on personal computers, tablet computers and smart phones by consumers first using Etisalat and then all other telecom providers.

Harsha Purasinghe, chief executive of Microimage, which built the software for the e-book store, said it was the right time to launch it given the growing popularity of smart phones and mobile computers.

"The timing is right - there are devices now."

He said the consortium will first transform books in different forms and electronic formats into a single standard called the Unicode standard which they encourage all future publishers and authors to use.

The works will then be converted for use in the e-book store and then in 'e-reader' applications.

Multiple payment options will be available including credit cards and pre-and post-paid mobile phone payment schemes to ensure widespread use of electronic books as the cost of smart phones fall.

"We want to ensure somebody really rural will be able to pay for these books," said Purasinghe.

"These devices cost is going to come down drastically. We're going to push vendors to bring this price point further down to less than 10,000 rupees. When that happens everybody would be able to afford them."

Microimage has developed its own encryption technology for digital rights management (DRM).

"This was a key concern for publishers," said Purasinghe. "We will not use standard DRM. We have written our own encryption technology so it's hard to crack for hackers."

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Sri Lankan Telcos Deliver Faster Broadband. SLT & Dialog Launch 4G as Etisalat Introduces 3.75G

08th May 2011, www.island.lk

Earlier it was a price war, but now mobile telecommunication companies are racing to deliver faster broadband speeds.

Just one day after Etisalat launched its 3.75 generation broadband network, Sri Lanka Telecom PLC’s (SLT) Mobitel and Dialog Axiata PLC (Dial) announced that they had conducted successful trials on fourth generation (4G) LTE networks, breaking broadband speed records for the first time in South Asia, they both claimed.

Both SLT and Dial both announced last Friday that they had carried out successful trials in 4G technology, which means Etisalat’s 3.75G network would be slightly behind.

While Etisalat is promising speeds up to 21mbps with a capacity to reach 42mbps through its 3.75G network, SLT says its 4G network could deliver up to 96mbps in downlink and 49mbps in uplink using LTE technology.

"Having launched the first Super-3.5G HSPA network in South Asia in December 2007, and subsequently carried out a trial of HSPA+, MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) with downlink speeds of up to 28mbps in 2009, another first in the region, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel has broken the speed barrier even further to demonstrate broadband speeds of up to 96mbps in downlink and 49mbps in uplink using LTE technology, and setting another record in the region for the third consecutive time," the telco said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Dial’s pilot network will initially cover several key zones within the city. It said its trials achieved data speeds in excess of 100mbps in indoor demonstration mode, and 40-50mbps in outdoor mobile usage scenarios within the city.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission is monitoring these broadband speeds to ensure consumers get value for money and that broadband speeds are within the advertised range.

A recent price-war left many of the telcos bleeding.

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Sri Lanka's Etisalat Spends $163mn on Expansion and 3G Upgrade

20th July 2010 www.dailymirror.lk

Sri Lanka's Etisalat unit said it was spending 163 million US dollars to expand its network into war ravaged north of the country and improve its broadband services in urban areas.

The expansion will see 480 new base stations taking the total to 1580, which the firm says will be the largest in the island.

"We are investing 163 million US dollars (18.5 billion rupees) to expand base stations and bring HSPA 28.8 megabits per second.

"We are bringing coverage investment, distributed all over the country with special emphasis on the North and the East," chief executive Duminda Ratnayaka said.

Ratnayaka said expansion of its broadband services will see HSPA (high speed packet access) technology with 28.8 megabits per second speeds.

Over 500 third generation (3G) base stations will be built on existing locations.

Alcatel-Lucent has been chosen as the vendor.

UAE-based Etisalat bought the Sri Lanka unit from Millicom Cellular International when it exited Asia.

The firm says the expansion will be funded by debt at 'attractive terms' as the firm was virtually debt free and its parent is rated A+ by Fitch Ratings.
"We are virtually a debt free company,' deputy chief executive Riyaz Rasheed said.

"Given our status as a debt free we have managed to finalize the funding."

The firm said its subscriber base was now close to 3.0 million.

Ratnayaka said a recent floor price set by the regulator was beneficial to "both the consumer and operator."

"The operator has to have a healthy business to ensure that good services are delivered to the consumer," Ratnayaka said.

Sri Lanka's Bharti Airtel unit has petitioned courts over the move. Sri Lanka's 15 million subscriber market is shared between Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, Airtel, Hutch and Etisalat.

Sri Lanka Etisalat Unit to Offer Mobile Phone Banking

05th March 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Etisalat's new Sri Lankan mobile subsidiary is in talks with banks to offer financial services on mobile phones, such as money transfers for migrant workers in the Middle East, a senior company official said.

Riyaaz Rasheed deputy chief executive of Etisalat Lanka said the mobile operator is seeking to tie-up with banks to offer the financial services.

"We're already talking to two of the biggest banks in Sri Lanka," he told LBO. Rasheed declined to identify the banks, citing non-disclosure agreements signed with them.

Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates-based telecom firm, acquired 100 percent of the Sri Lanka operation called Tigo from Millicom International in October 2009 and has renamed it Etisalat Lanka.

The celco is the third-largest mobile telephony operator in Sri Lanka with 2.5 million customers and an estimated market share of around 20 percent.

Rasheed said one business the company was looking at was money transfer services especially for Sri Lankan migrant workers in the Middle East where Etisalat has a strong presence.

"There is a huge Sri Lanka population working outside - in the Middle East market where Etisalat operates in a big way."

Migrant workers now remit money through banks or informal money transfer services.

Etisalat Lanka hopes to launch mobile banking operations before the end of the year and is waiting to see how services Etisalat has introduced elsewhere perform, Rasheed said.

Etisalat began mobile remittance trials from the UAE to India and the Philippines, both countries with big migrant workers populations, last year allowing expatriates to send money home using their mobile phones.

It has just struck a deal with Citibank to start the programme in India, with plans to expand it to Bangladesh, Pakistan and Egypt in the coming months, the group's chief marketing officer Essa al Haddad has been quoted as saying.

The service works with all types of mobile phones. The cost of the service was not available.

Financial services are being considered an attractive application for offering on mobile phones in which they are seen as 'virtual wallets'.

The GSM Association, an industry group of 800 wireless operators, estimates one billion consumers in the world have a mobile phone but no access to a bank account.

Mobile banking services are now being offered in the Philippines and South Africa, where 8.5 million and 4.5 million people are estimated to use such services.

According to the GSMA, about 40 million people worldwide use mobile money, and the industry is growing mainly in Africa and Asia where formal banking services are not as widely available as elsewhere.

Sri Lanka Etisalat unit says to expand 'aggressively'

25th February 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Etisalat's new Sri Lankan mobile subsidiary said it plans to expand coverage to cover the entire island, offer high speed links and use its international group network to give preferential rates to win customers.

"We're here to stay in Sri Lanka," Etisalat group chief marketing officer Essa Al Haddad told a news conference held to announce the launch of services under the new brand.

"As investors and telecom service providers we're here for the long term."

Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates-based telecom firm, acquired 100 percent of the Sri Lanka operation called Tigo from Millicom International in October 2009 and has renamed it Etisalat Lanka.

The celco is the third-largest mobile telephony operator in Sri Lanka with 2.5 million customers and an estimated market share of around 20 percent.

Etisalat Lanka chief executive Dumindra Ratnayaka said the company will set up more base stations to expand coverage throughout the island, including the north and east which are recovering from a war.

The island's 30-year ethnic war ended in May 2009, resulting in an economic revival.

Etisalat Lanka has already have set up eight base stations in the north and will launch operations in the northern Jaffna peninsula on Friday, Ratnayaka told the news conference.

"We will aggressively start rolling out our base stations from March," he said.

"We will roll out 450 2G base stations, mostly in the north and east, to fill any gaps we have, increasing the number of stations to 1,500 in the next six months."

Of the new 2G base stations, 100 will be in the north and east.

The firm will also set up 500 3G base stations offering higher speeds over the same period.

Ratnayaka said the company will also promote its international roaming services making use of the group network which has 100 million subscribers in 18 countries in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

"Our group presence helps us to give preferential rates, packages and services," Ratnayaka said.

"When roaming within the group network we will offer preferential rates, which will vary from network to network; for instances in some networks incoming calls will be free."

Etisalat Lanka also intends to capture market share by exploiting the presence of Sri Lankan migrant workers in the Middle East.

"The UAE is host to many communities and nationalities including Sri Lankans who have a lot of connections with Sri Lanka," group chief marketing officer Essa Al Haddad said.

He also said Etisalat's ownership of the company will enable it to benefit from economies of scale. "We can provide scale - such as in accessing technical resources and in buying equipment."