Mobitel earns Rs. 500m profit in first quarter

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel has earned a profit of Rs. 500 million for the first quarter as against Rs. 250 million collected in the corresponding period last year.

Speaking at the launch of their new package SMART Freedom, Chief Executive Officer, Mobitel, Suren Ameresekera said this is an increase of over 100 per cent.

He said the company is planning to complete the installation of 2,000 towers under their fourth phase by the end of this year giving customers better coverage including the North and East.

“We have invested Rs. 400 million for these four stages,” he said.

The local mobile penetration is very high with over eight million people being connected with nearly 90 per cent being pre-paid customers.

Commenting on the SMART Freedom package targeting this segment, he said that it offers ‘free mobile democracy’ to the customers.

“This offering is a first for both South Asia and Sri Lanka in that it makes available to Mobitel SMART customers free Mobitel (M2M) traffic options which include free M2M voice calls, free M2M video calls and free M2mSMS’.

“In the past we have seen Sri Lankans using more than one mobile phone with different numbers or perhaps even switching SIM cards to find their way around the price regulations imposed by the different operators in inching towards their freedom of telephony.

Up until now, they have had to incur huge cost burdens or suffer in silence and not be able to talk to business associates, loved onces and friends.

SMART Freedom is in the enviable position of breaking down the barriers imposed on domestic calls as well as text messaging by offering free M2M and people will no longer be hassled for wanting to make a simple mobile phone call.

We believe that this the only tariff option for any truly intelligent citizen of Sri Lanka who wants to benefit from true mobile democracy by joining the SMART community.”

SMART Freedom is offered to all existing and new SMART pre-paid customers, with its tariff options designed as add-ons that can be opted on a daily or weekly basis.

These brand new tariff options have been introduced to offer greater ease for Sri Lankans enabling them to enjoy the freedom that should be part of the mobile telephony experience.

SMART package at a glance.

* FREE (24 hours of the day) outgoing and incoming M2M voice calls
* FREE (24 hours of the day) outgoing and incoming M2M video calls
* FREE (24 hours of the day) outgoing M2M SMS.
* FREE (24 hours of the day) incoming calls from any network.