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| Sunday, 10 March 2002 |
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Int'l mobile telecom award for second consecutive year Sri Lanka once again took centre stage at the recently concluded GSM World Congress in Cannes, France. Dialog GSM placed Sri Lanka firmly on the world map of telecommunications, bagging a second consecutive world award at the GSM Awards ceremony known as the 'Oscars' of the mobile industry. Dialog GSM became only the second operator worldwide to be honoured in consecutive years by the GSM world body. The GSM world awards 2002 attracted a record number of entries which exceeded 750. A judging panel comprising international experts in the mobile telecommunications industry deliberated for over two months to coverage on 10 world award winners in an equal number of categories from among 500 operators worldwide. Dialog GSM was placed in a shortlist of three operators alongside Telia of Denmark and Fastlink of Jordan in the Wireless Accessibility category, but beat its counterparts to the world award based on its international firsts in extending GSM services to the differently abled. Dialog's locally developed SMS 112 (SMS-based emergency alert service for the hearing and speech impaired), Braille billing (for the visually impaired) and Dialog@hospitals project (for the critically sick at the Army Hospital, Rana Viru Sevana and Cancer Hospital, Maharagama) took centre stage among a suite of initiatives taken by the company to use GSM technology to transform the lives of less fortunate elements of Sri Lankan society. Dialog GSM Sri Lanka was recognized for delivering an international first in research and development in the area of GSM accessibility and for its consistent thrust towards utilising GSM technology to bridge challenges faced by traditionally marginalised segments of society. Year 2002 GSM World Award winners included international telecommunications giants NTT DoCoMo of Japan, Ericsson Telecommunications, Sonera Corporation of Finland and Orange (France). Speaking at the announcement of the award in Colombo, Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, the company's CEO expressed the company's appreciation of the assistance it had received from several partner institutions in implementing initiatives under the CHANGE programme. Principal among those were the Emergency Unit of the Sri Lanka Police, the Blind Association of Sri Lanka, the Sri Lanka Army Hospital, Ranaviru Sevana and the Children's Unit of the Cancer Hospital of Sri Lanka. "We should all take pride in this award which translates to global recognition the efforts of a large number of Sri Lankan people and institutions working towards alleviating the hardship faced by less fortunate citizens. Technology can play an important role in this respect, as we have succeeded in demonstrating," Dr. Wijayasuriya added. Dialog GSM now provides international roaming facilities in over 100 countries. Its network comprises over 200 base stations and supports over 300,000 subscribers. The company's commitment to Sri Lankan society and its development is exemplified in the creation of the CHANGE trust fund as well as through its continued support of sports at national and schools level, the sports programme for the disabled, and assistance to the Ceylon School for the Deaf and Blind, the National Child Protection Authority and the Jaipur Foot Foundation. Dialog GSM is a fully owned subsidiary of Telekom Malaysia Bhd and won the Sri Lanka National Quality Award for Business Excellence in the Large Scale Service Category in 2001. |
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