SimPhony pumps US$ 5m for expansion

Shirajiv Sirimane

CNS Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, who own and operate SimPhony Public Phones, will invest a further US$ 5 million in 2008 to expand their coverage.

Chief Executive Officer, CNS Lanka (Pvt) Ltd (CNSL) Jagath Kumara said that SimPhony public phones is a BoI approved joint venture between Cellnets Solutions Israel and SimPhony Networks in Sri Lanka with a US$ 17 million projected investment. "We are looking at increasing coverage and add more features in 2008 and the investment would be used for this purpose," he said.

He said that their aim is to be the market leader at the end of next year.

According to Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) data, there are nearly 7678 Payphones islandwide and out of that 4004 are located in the Western Province.

Only around 5,000 are operational. "CNSL intends to deploy 10,000 SimPhony payphones through their dealer network in 2008.

The company intends to install around 30,000 phones in the next 3-4 years covering the entire island," he said.

Cellnets Israel plans to have additional global investors towards the second phase of the operation financially back CNSL. CNSL also intends to set up a phone manufacturing plant in the island. Currently CNSL works with Hutchison Telecommunication Lanka Limited and have plans to work with other GSM operators early next year.

Based on a countrywide market research survey done, this unique individual number based Payphone system would avail citizens to have their own phone number and have access to telecommunication facilities at an affordable price.

He said they also provide an antenna where the coverage could be extended up to 30 kilometres.

"This could be used to offer connectivity to rural areas without investment on rural infrastructure enhancement and will create telecommunication accessibility to people in villages," he said.

Since the payphone consumes less electricity and can be operated via solar power it could be used in remote areas through the high frequency antenna giving connectivity.

He said they are also looking at introducing a unique SIM pouch where the mobile users of any network can use it when their battery is down or not in an area where there is coverage. "Internet too would be enabled in the future with an extended data cable," he said.

The calling card, which is like a credit card, SIM is a very low investment and comes with a re-load facility.