Lanka Bell felicitates over 50 top performers

Lanka Bell last week felicitated more than 50 of the company's top performers from its 1,000 plus workforce whose efforts in 2006 enabled the company to increase its market share and enhance its position as the leading CDMA and second largest fixed-line telecommunications company in the country.

The company's awards ceremony at Water's Edge was themed 'One Awards' reflecting the leadership position achieved by Lanka Bell over the past two years. The principal award at the event was the Employee of the Year Award, and eight other awards and service excellence awards were presented to more than 40 personnel.

Lanka Bell Managing Director Suren Goonewardene paid tribute to the hard work and commitment of the company's staff, which had enabled the company to provide more than 500,000 subscriber connections.

"Lanka Bell enjoys a unique positioning in Sri Lanka's telecommunications sector," he said, pointing out that besides being the pioneer of CDMA technology in Sri Lanka, a milestone development that enabled 'over-the-counter' fixed-line telephone connections at affordable rates, the company is also the only 100 per cent locally owned entity in this sector.

Referring to the company's unique Sri Lankan identity, Goonewardene said that "This is much more than a slogan. It is also our strength and the wellspring of our commitment to invest the money we earn back into the expansion of services to remote under-developed areas."

Declaring that "Lanka Bell takes a long term vision of its business in Sri Lanka," he said that the company's staff strength had more than doubled from 350 in 2005 to over 1,000 today, and the company's branch network had grown rapidly to 42 in 22 districts.

"As much as we are proud of our significant growth in the last two years, the coming year will see Lanka Bell forge new horizons and frontiers which will make our customers, employees and the community winners with us," Goonewardene said.