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Airtel Lanka set for launch, local players fear tariff war
Wednesday, 7 January 2009 - 12:11 AM SL Time
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The foray of Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel into Sri Lanka has triggered apprehensions among its competitors about an impending price war.
Airtel is slated to launch its operations here next week. The move will make it the biggest Indian investor here, pegged by unnamed sources at $200 million. Sources said that Airtel got the mandatory permission from the Bank of Investment (BOI) to invest $150 million in 2007. ``Eventually, their investment will go above the $200 million,`` sources said.
Airtel officials in Colombo, while confirming the launch of the services on January 12, did not comment on details like tariff structure could be.
They however denied an email in circulation, which said that Airtel would offer services at less than half the current tariff structure in the market. That email is incorrect, a senior Airtel official told HT.
It is however widely expected that Airtel would cut tariffs, if not immediately, at least gradually over the next few months.
The company`s launch here was is several months behind schedule because of delays in getting required permissions. Current players in the mobile market had also petitioned the government with apprehensions of tariff cuts.
There are more than 6 million mobile users in Sri Lanka.
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Spetsnaz1
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 2650
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 7 Jan 2009 04:09:30 GMT Report for Abuse
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| This will give cell phone users in Sri Lanka less rates than usual.. it is good that GOSL have taken step to put down the cell phone monopoly..thus giving reliefs to the consumer.. |
leelananda
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 64
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7 Jan 2009 10:07:42 GMT Report for Abuse
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All past years this current players robbed the Srilankans of their hard earn money. Now that is over. That is why they are worried. For Example, Dialog 2007 last quarter profit was Rs 2.3 billion. But it is in 2008 last quarter their loss is 190 million.
How pathetic is the situation. |
lankaputha
Joined: Nov 2007
Posts: 364
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 7 Jan 2009 13:13:03 GMT Report for Abuse
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Mr Leelananda,
I have some serious doubts about the lost of Dialog. Is this the difference between the predictions and the actuals. If the company is running at a lost, we should see tarrif increases and layoffs. But nothing happened so far.
Any ways, operating a mobile line is a huge cost, but once installed the maintenance and other operations are running at a very lower cost, hence the profits are maxed, I heard that a call can be given at 10 cents per minute with a profit margin of 15% per month. |
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