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HNB commissions 300th ATM

HNB has expanded the bank’s electronic delivery channels with the commissioning of the 300th ATM. The bank had 260 ATMs at the beginning of this year, which included 230 on-site (at customer centre premises), and 30 off-site ATMs spread across the island.

This number also includes two drive-thru ATMs at the Bank’s Head Office, “HNB Towers”, and at its Priority Banking Centre on Greenpath.

The 300th ATM was opened by HNB Managing Director CEO Rajendra Theagarajah, at the SSC, Maitland Place.

During this year, fifty new ATMs would be commissioned, out of which 23 locations are outstation, and 21 are off-site locations at key public places. The HNB ATM network not only caters for the bank’s own debit and credit card holders, but for all VISA, MasterCard credit and debit cardholders of Sri Lanka and tourists.

The entire ATM network was upgraded over the past year providing the stable backbone required for this expansion.

An advanced ATM monitoring system coupled with a 24 x 7 customer help desk, improved service levels by reducing response time.

The upgrade to ATM services included the dispensing of Rs. 2.000 denomination notes at selected ATMs and increase of withdrawal limit to Rs. 100,000 at all ATMs.

Singer recognized one of ‘Ten Best Corporate Citizens’

Singer (Sri Lanka), was recognized as one of the “Ten Best Corporate Citizens” by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for its tradition of sustainable business practices.

The company has been honoured with this accolade on several occasions.

The company’s belief in improving the welfare of Sri Lankans is reflected in its commitment to a long-term vision that includes investing in the environment, community relationships, entrepreneurship development, and the development of sport, among other areas. Despite the financial turmoil that affected all companies, both Sri Lankan and global, Singer (Sri Lanka) continued its previous projects and began many new ones.

Singer (Sri Lanka)’s belief in the importance of its CSR projects is rooted in two closely related reasons: firstly, the company’s success depends on increasing community purchasing power by improving community living standards; secondly, and most importantly, as a company that has been honoured as the country’s strongest brand and that is so deeply embedded in the Sri Lankan psyche through its employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders, the development of Singer (Sri Lanka) and the development of its community are essentially one and the same thing.

The company’s entrepreneurship initiatives, such as its Fashion Academy and Culinary School, are aimed at empowering Sri Lankans by giving them the skills and training they need and creating untold direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Singer (Sri Lanka)’s IT Knowledge Bus gives rural schoolchildren invaluable hands-on experience with computer technology and the chance to plug in to the “information superhighway.”

Already, it has visited more than 800 rural schools, giving more than 50,000 children the chance to bridge the ‘digital divide.’ Employees are frequently the driving force behind the company’s CSR efforts.

An example of their own initiative of The Ten Rupee project allows them to contribute directly by donating a minimum of Rs. 10 to the worthy cause selected by them for the month.

Singer (Sri Lanka) is closely identified with sporting success in the country because of its many commitments that include sponsorships of teams, events, referees as well as the development of the country’s sporting infrastructure.

LG launches ‘crystal’ phone

The LG GD900 Crystal with S-Class User Interface and Transparent Graphics delivers ultra-rich content and fast processing speeds ideal for exceptional graphic detail and 3D effects.

The beautiful, refined look of the Transparent UI completes the picture.

LG is introducing a new way to operate some features with ‘Crystal Touchpad’. With Gesture Shortcut function, one can command nine multitasking features by drawing the designated finger movements on the Touchpad.

What makes the LG Crystal more intutive and fun to use is the user-friendly S-Class UI. Full browsing of the web and viewing multimedia contents are possible with large three inch WVGA LCD screen.

You can view your multimedia library on command on large screen. With its exclusive Auto Luminance Control screen, brightness is adjusted according to the environment making it easier on your eyes.

The LG Crystal has an upscale eight mega-pixel camera making it the highest standard in the industry. The 8MP camera gives the highest resolution possible.

At Future World:

Dialog delivers first HSPA+ 28.8Mbps customer experience

Dialog Telekom, introduced the advancing of its HSPA+ testing program to the exposition of a live customer experience at its Future World service centre. Leading the region in supporting the latest edition of HSPA+, Dialog’s mobile broadband network was recently upgraded to support downlink speeds of up to 28.8 Mbps.

During the initial phase, Dialog Mobile users visiting the Dialog Future World in Darley Road Colombo can experience data surfing and uplink speeds of 5.76 Mbps. Full commercial availability of the technology would follow the availability of customer devices supporting HSPA+ data speeds.

Dialog’s HSPA+ infrastructure is based on Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology, which offers significant increases in data throughput and link range without consuming additional bandwidth or transmit power. In April this year, Dialog Telekom became the first telco in the country to deploy a HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access), service on commercial basis with consumers in Mount Lavinia, Kotte, Battaramulla, Wellawatta and Moratuwa areas enjoying downlink speeds of up to 21 Mbps.

Dialog Mobile Chief Executive Officer Supun Weerasinghe, said: “Dialog continues to be at the helm of shaping applications and solutions that are smarter and offer greater flexibility to user experience.

Broadband internet is the fastest growing area in the vast sphere of mobile communications, and this data revolution presents the future of how we do business and therein shaping lifestyles. Dialog will continue to lead in this global transition as it has successfully done for over a decade.”

HSPA+ offers customers faster response and less latency for media-rich applications, including high-definition video streaming, web surfing and other next-generation wireless applications with high bandwidth requirements.

Dialog will expand its 28.8 Mbps HSPA+ network across its 3.5G network spanning Colombo, Kandy, Galle, Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Nuwara Eliya, Trincomalee and other major towns in Sri Lanka.

Australia probes airline incident

Australian aviation officials said they were investigating how two passenger planes came to be travelling in opposite directions on the same flight path over the Outback.

An Airbus A330 was southbound at 37,000 feet while a Boeing 737 was northbound on the reciprocal track, also at 37,000 feet, over the Northern Territory on December 22, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said.

“It wasn’t a near miss,” a bureau spokesman told AFP, adding that the aircraft were never close enough to activate their automatic warning systems.

“The system certainly worked in this case,” he said.

The bureau said the crew on the Airbus first noticed the problem and alerted air controllers who instructed them to climb to 38,000 feet and divert to the right of the track.

AFP