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By Shirajiv Sirimane

MTN Networks (Pvt) Ltd, owners and operators of Dialog GSM, is seriously contemplating to expand its network to the Northern and Eastern Provinces, the company's CEO, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya told the 'Daily News'.

He said that he feels that the political and ground climate is now right to move into the Jaffna peninsula. "We have also found that there is a great demand for telecommunication services and being the leading operator in the country we have the resources and the finances to launch our network in the area."

He said that with the ongoing peace process he feels confident of obtaining clearance from the Defence Ministry for this project.

Another senior official said that the Company is now working hard on this project and a special package where subscribers would receive more incoming minutes free, is in the offing for the North East Province.

Dialog GSM, announced the tie-up with SriLankan airlines to introduce a 'first' to the South East Asian mobile communication industry by offering flight information via their Short Message Services (SMS).

All Dialog GSM customers could now obtain the national carrier's flight schedule according to flight number, departure and destination cities, by means of simple codes. Airline codes for particular destinations along with 'flight alerts' on customer requests will be provided via SMS under this new service.

"We are committed in placing Sri Lanka on the world map of advanced mobile communications and are proud to partner with SriLankan Airlines in delivering this service which will be a key service to the global traveller," Dr. Wijayasuriya said. "This service will be available on our international roaming network which covers over 100 countries which enables Dialog customers to access this service from anywhere in the world."

He said that this system is a 100% brainchild of Sri Lankan IT experts drawn from the MTN Networks and SriLankan airlines staff. "We are also in the process of introducing a new chip for our customers which will make SMS messages even less complicating."

Head of Information Technology, SriLankan airlines, Nigel O'Shea, said that they already offer airline schedules on their web site. "But I am sure that many of our customers will find this new mobile service a valuable and flexible addition." The airline schedules will be updated every six minutes, he said.

He said that they have been investing heavily in the field of IT and would be doing it in the future as well.

Dialog GSM, operates the country's largest cellular network comprising over 200 base stations and supporting over 300,000 subscribers. A fully owned subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia, MTN Networks was the winner of Sri Lanka's National Quality Award for Business Excellence in the Large Scale Service Category last year.

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