SLT targets Rs. 47 b turnover for 2008

Goes for new IP services, IPTV:

Anjana Samarasinghe

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), one of the major players in the local telecommunications industry is targeting Rs. 47 billion turnover this year and is confident of achieving their set turnover targets.

Chief Marketing and Sales Officer of SLT Ajantha Seneviratne told Daily News Business last year they achieved Rs. 42 billion in turnover and this year the company is targeting Rs. 47 billion.

The voice segment is the main contributor to the total turnover of the company. "We expect to introduce a range of new IP services in the near future. We have done pilot testing on these new services and they have been successfully completed. Virtual phone systems, automated attended service, home PBX and various other services will be introduced under this", Seneviratne said.

The company has already recruited new staff for the operations of these new IP services. The company will also launch IPTV in Sri Lanka soon for a more interactive television experience. At the moment company has embarked on a three year transformation project and introducing IP services is part of this strategy.

"We have heavily invested on our customer care unit before commencing our IP services. "The company has set up a point of presence in Hong Kong and planning to expand their global presence. "We have noticed there is a huge demand for ADSL lines especially in outstations.

Today broadband been used only for Internet connectivity but we want to promote broadband for video conferencing and other business purposes", he said.

Though CDMA is popular among consumers still there is a high demand for fixed lines and SLT expects to focus more on this segment in the future. Fixed lines are hassle free and high in clarity.

"The company will develop infrastructure for providing faster service in deploying fixed lines and make it more affordable to subscribers. "There is a significant growth in small and medium scale enterprises in developing their IT and telecommunication infrastructure.

"For two to three years time, we observed most medium scale enterprises developing their own networks networking their branches.

"Some companies are affiliated to foreign companies and telecommunication is a vital factor for them.

"Our Internet data centre was established targeting large scale companies. But we find many medium scale enterprises host their servers at our Internet data centre," he said.

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