Alcatel - Lucent to strengthen presence in Lanka

Ruwanthi Abeyakoon

EXPANSION: Alcatel-Lucent will strengthen its presence and expand services in Sri Lanka, President, South Asia Region, Ravi Sharma said briefing the media after the inauguration of the new branch office in Colombo.

“ The local presence of Alcatel-Lucent will be strengthened, merging with Lucent has made Alcatel the biggest supplier of telecommunication solutions. The market for telecommunication solutions has grown in Sri Lanka in the areas of fixed and mobile phones, data and broad band transmissions,” he explained.

He said Alcatel-Lucent has a dominant market share in most of the countries in South Asia region. “We have more than 50 percent market share in most of the countries.

“We provide the widest product range. We have focused on new technologies such as WiMAX and researches are being done in India. We will also do trials in Sri Lanka to introduce WiMAX.

“Whatever the product researches done in India will be brought to Sri Lanka. There is a good market for WiMAX as the rural sector is large in Sri Lanka. WiMAX is far more viable for the rural sector,” Sharma said.

“South Asia is the fastest growing market for mobile phones and there is an upcoming market for broadband. We hope to remain as an equipment provider and provide solutions in telecommunication sector.

We were operating in Sri Lanka for a long time and have enhanced our services. Our customers cover three or four major operators such as SLT, Dialog and Tigo.

“Our focus will be on enhancing the products. We are also committed to provide whatever the solutions our customers need,” he added.

Sharma pointed out that Alcatel-Lucent is willing to be a part in new telecommunication projects in Sri Lanka.

“There is a good market share on GSM in Sri Lanka. We will also expand on CDMA. If there are new projects we will be glad to be a part of it. We will push the products while providing the customers with telecommunication solutions. Infrastructure of the country will also be addressed when the operations take place,” he said.