Dialog connects Lanka to high speed submarine gateway
Dialog Axiata PLC (Dialog), Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider
announced today that it had entered in to an agreement with the Bay of
Bengal Gateway (BBG) Consortium to land a high capacity submarine cable
at a Cable Landing Station to be located in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dialog’s
investment in the new high speed submarine cable will trigger the single
largest infusion of International Bandwidth to Sri Lanka to date.
Dialog recently led Sri Lanka’s telecommunications sector in to the
4G era, with the country’s first Fixed 4G-LTE network being commissioned
in the latter part of 2012 and South Asia’s first Mobile 4G-LTE network
going live in April 2013. Commenting on Dialog’s investment in the new
submarine cable, Dialog Axiata Group Chief Executive Dr. Hans
Wijayasuriya said, “Dialog’s investment in a submarine cable system
leads on from our aggressive commitment to deliver the Fastest and Most
Advanced Telecommunications technology to Sri Lanka and to make the
downstream benefits of these technologies affordable and accessible to
all Sri Lankan citizens. The recent commissioning of our 4G services
overlaid on our advanced 3G HSPA+ and Fibre Optic Infrastructure
reaching all Districts of Sri Lanka, will empower Sri Lankan consumers
and businesses with the power of high speed connectivity. Our investment
in a Cable Landing Station and Submarine Connectivity to the Global
Internet will infuse further speed and capacity to our broadband
offerings spanning Enterprise, Retail and Wholesale solutions”
Dialog’s International Cable Landing Station (CLS) will be
commissioned in the 4th Quarter of 2014 signalling an era of abundant
availability of International Bandwidth to Sri Lanka’s ICT industry and
Broadband consumers alike. The BBG cable will link Sri Lanka and the
region (spanning from Singapore to Oman/UAE) to high capacity Internet
hubs in Singapore and India and to onward submarine cable pipes to
Europe and the USA.
Other investors in the BBG consortium include Telekom Malaysia
Berhad, Vodafone Group, Infotel Telecom Limited-India, Oman
Telecommunications Company S.A.O.G-Oman and Emirates Telecommunications
Corporation.
Commenting on the BBG investment Azwan Khan, Group Chief Operating
Officer at Dialog Axiata PLC said “The provision of this alternate
artery will provide a tremendous boost to the overall connectivity from
a Sri Lankan perspective as well as providing an affordable, economical
option to all players in the Sri Lankan market who require bandwidth to
function. Accessing international capacity at the lowest rates is
essential for Sri Lankan enterprises to remain competitive in a global
economy.
The new BBG system will have open access at the CLS which provides a
state of the art facility for all operators to connect to the world. It
will also bring in industry standard best practices to ensure that Sri
Lanka’s access framework is aligned with regional hubs including
Singapore. This kind of expansion is only possible thanks to the
progressive policies put in place by the TRCSL which have enabled Sri
Lanka to lead the region in innovation and infrastructure development
that is on par with if not surpassing international benchmarks.”
Dialog operates one of Sri Lanka’s largest International Gateway
Infrastructures connecting Sri Lanka’s Telecommunications networks and
consumers to the world via a network of over 120 Tier 1 and Tier 2
global partners for voice and connectivity services.
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