ITU Highlights Sri Lanka's World's Fastest Telecom Affordability Gains

27th June 2011, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka is among the top three countries in the world to see a sharp increase in telecom services affordability, a study by the International Telecommunications Union, a UN affiliated body has shown.

ITU's 2010 ICT Price Basket, measures the change in costs of mobile, fixed and fixed broadband services relative to per person gross national product, from 2008.

South Asian countries of Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were among countries to see the sharpest rise in affordability. Relative costs fell 67.4 percent in 2010 from two years ago in Sri Lanka, behind 75.4 percent for Bhutan and ahead of Bangladesh's 65.2 percent.

Azerbaijan saw the steepest price fall measured by the basket at 81.7 percent.

Consumers worldwide were paying on average 18 percent less for ICT services than two years ago, with broadband prices falling 50 percent. Mobile costs have fallen 22 percent and fixed telephony 7 percent.

As a region, the largest price drops were in Africa, but the countries had high prices to begin with, ITU said. In Africa fixed broadband prices had fallen 55 percent and cellular prices 25 percent.

But in Africa fixed broadband was still three times the monthly average per person GNP and was "prohibitively high", the ITU said.

In developing countries fixed broadband service costs had dropped 52 percent, compared to 35 percent in developed countries.

Small economies with high per person gross national income, such as Monaco, Macao, Liechtenstein, Hong Kong (China) and Singapore topped the ICT Price Basket.

In many developed nations ICT costs were one percent of per person national product, compared to 17 percent from developing countries.

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Telcos Invest $300mn in Sri Lanka as TRC Aims to Up Last Year's Rs120bn Revenue

23rd January 2011, www.sundaytimes.lk

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) says this year will see more than US $ 300 million worth of investment from the telco industry. “This is a large investment and we plan to increase the total revenue from the industry by at least Rs. 10 billion more than last year,” Anusha Pelpita, Director General TRC told the Business Times.

He said last year’s (approximate) revenue figure is Rs 120 billion. He added that the Interconnection regime, (which is the fee charged by the call receiving party from a call originating party; E.g.; from Dialog to Mobitel) and also the minimum floor rate for calls has helped the industry by eliminating unfair practices.

Mr. Pelpita added that while there’s been no unhealthy competition in terms of ‘voice’ or telephone calls from the industry players as was seen in 2009 and early 2010, the battle has now spilled onto data – or Internet connection speed (broadband speed).

“After we pointed out that none of the operators had more than 25% of the promised speed (by them to the customers) they have made it a point to improve the broadband connections,” he said.

He said that now the broadband speed is at 60% to 70%. He added that TRC will put out a standard stipulating a minimum broadband standard per day, which will see further progress in the Internet connection speed.

Mr. Pelpita said the regulator will over the next three years enhance the penetration levels of the broadband/Internet in the island. “Now it’s at 2% and we need to increase it to at least 10% by 2014,” he added.

In this respect, he said that more large investments in this area are needed. “Many Chinese and Indian parties want to come into broadband, but we want to grow the existing players first,” he added.

Mr. Pelpita said that the Commissioners sanctioned amendments to the TRC Act early this month. “The last amendment was 14 years ago – in 1996. The new Act (after the amendments) will give more teeth to the regulator,” he said. He said that a 10-member committee in this regard will be appointed and they hope to see some light at the end of the tunnel within six months.

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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 Leisure Sector Attracts more FDI. Telecoms and Power to Get only 40%

08th April 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Telecom and power sectors which accounted for 65 percent of foreign direct investment to Sri Lanka in recent years will play a less dominant role as cash pours into leisure with an upturn in tourism, an official said.

In the first quarter of this year around 250 million US dollars have come as foreign direct investments (FDI) compared to 602 million for the whole of last year, Board of Investment chief Dammika Perera said.

"In the past telecoms and power sector contributed around 60 percent of FDI, while 40 percent came from other sectors," Perera told reporters in Colombo.

"In the future the telecoms and power sectors will come down to around 40 percent."

With a pick up in tourism after a 30-year war ended last year, more cash is expected to pour into the sector.

Leisure firm have started to expand to increase capacity and about 200 million dollars in investment commitments are expected soon, Perera said.

Private power plants supplying the state-run Ceylon Electricity Board have invested 73.6 billion rupees through and generate about 40 percent of the country's power need, BOI deputy director general A M C Kulasekera said.

There are 18 telecommunication service providers that have invested 194.6 billion rupees, Kulasekera said.