Celltel invests USD 100m on expansion, outstation towers

MOBILE MARKET: SRI LANKAN mobile telephony penetration has grown rapidly in the last two years due to vast expansion of net work operators in the county.

Compared to other countries in the region Sri Lanka has a better mobile telephony penetration rate and it has the capacity to grow by 25% in the near future said Commercial Director of Celltel Aniljit Singh announcing their next coverage expansion.

Sri Lankan consumers are favourable on mobile telephony and it has become the most desirable instrument in their lives. Today mobile operators provide a lot of services for the subscribers and there is no reason to withhold them in the future, he said.

Celltel would commence their operations in any part of the country where there is Sri Lankan law existing Singh said.

CEO of Celltel Dumindra Ratnayaka said that company has invested USD 100 million for the expansion and under this, 500 towers will be set up in eight months between March to October in this year.

The total towers will exceed 750 by end of October and this will expand their coverage islandwide including in the North East areas. The company is planning to increase their coverage in areas under Government control, Ratnayaka said.

'The expansion also resulted in increase of GSM outstation towers. This takes our total number of switches to 4, 1 is Analogue and 3 GSM. We have around one million subscribers and now the company is planning a 50 percent growth this year', he said.

He said that the total investment is made of locally generated funds and loans. AS