Lanka Bell initiates incoming IDD payback

Lanka Bell announced it would pay their million customers for every overseas call they receive on their Lanka Bell phones.

Effective immediately, every incoming IDD call on a Lanka Bell phone will earn its user 50 cents for every minute of the call, regardless of its duration, country of origin or how many calls are received for a day, the company announced.

This bonanza, believed to represent the first occasion in this country that a service provider has paid its customers for using a utility, could result in some subscribers earning as much as Rs 1500 a month on incoming IDD calls, Lanka Bell Managing Director Prasad Samarasinghe said yesterday.

Describing this payback as a 'passing on' of the benefits of the company's Rs 3 billion investment to connect Sri Lanka to the FLAG undersea fibre optic cable network, Samarasinghe said the monies earned would be credited to phone balances in the case of prepaid connections, or set against the monthly bills of post-paid connections, resulting in substantial savings to the one million plus subscriber base of Lanka Bell.

"It's payback time," Samarasinghe declared, "but who would have imagined that these words would bring smiles to the faces of those hearing it?" He explained that the rationale behind the move was to show the average Sri Lankan phone user how being connected via Lanka Bell to FLAG, the world's largest terabit fibre optic undersea cable system, could make a tangible difference in their lives.

"The first step was an across-the-board reduction in tariffs for outgoing IDD calls that has resulted in Lanka Bell offering the lowest IDD rate of seven Rupees a minute," Samarasinghe said. "Now, incoming IDD calls, which have always been free, will actually help reduce usage costs further."