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| Sunday, 20 October 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Lanka Bell expands to rural areas Lanka Bell has recorded an increase of 37 and 36 per cent in gross and net revenue respectively while plans are afoot to expand its services to the rural areas. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Lanka Bell Joey Mendoza told the media last week that "since the prospects of economic and political development are good for Sri Lanka, we are expanding, but slowly as the company wants to get the fundamentals in place before expanding". The company became the first wireless loop operator to provide digital telecommunication services to the North with BellSat. This was done through the partnership with NEC Corporation and JCsat of Japan. The company is confident that it can expand to the East very soon. "We are planning to provide 100 BellBurst data links, the high end wireless broadband network, by the end of the year," said Mendoza. The latest product of the company, BellNet, the Internet service, offers 100 hours of free surfing with no rentals, bills and deposits. It allows customers to surf the net at the cost of a local telephone call which amounts to Rs 6 per hour. "Since its launch on September 25, we have received more than 5000 inquiries from interested people and have connected more than 50 per day," he said. Mendoza hopes this will help address the issue of low Internet penetration in the country. The company is planning to launch the first broadband cyber cafe which would offer a bandwidth speed of 512 Kbps to 4Mbps. It will increase the surfing time and enable faster downloads at affordable rates. "It will be a novel experience for the public, to have such high speeds at a cyber cafe. The cafes will be operated on a franchise basis and as tie-ups with universities," said Mendoza. Lanka Bell will also embark on a project to support children from selected schools to get free training on the Internet and an opportunity to surf the net. Freedom of speech at zero cost was another special customised solution introduced by Lanka Bell to its corporate customers. It offers free inter-branch communications and was launched with the aim of reducing heavy operational costs incurred by organisations on calling their branches. The company is the only fixed telecom service provider with a fully CLI-compatible network in Sri Lanka. |
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