Airtel Is Comming Soon To Sri Lanka

[raveen]

DialogGSM, Sri lanka's #1 mobile phone network provider recently announced that they have lost Rs 500 mil. bux from their subsidiary company DialogTv. According to the CEO of DialogTv, Mr.Naushad Perera, DialogTv has won a customer base of 45,000 with-in 9 months. But still they havent make any profit out of them. Whats the reason? inefficiency? High Expenses? However Dialog share prices have gone down from Rs 26.00 to around Rs 20.00 (some says thats bcoz of the budget)

At this situation, Bharathi Airtel (India's #1) which handles 50 million mobile accounts in India, annonced that they will commence business in Sri Lanka from March 2008. It has already registered the business in Sri Lanka under the name "Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd" as a BOI Project. And also They have reserved the web doamin www.airtel.com.lk under thier company. So we can expect them soon. According to the rumors, Airtel is going to slash the Sri Lankan mobile market with their cheap call charges.

As we have seen in the history, several new operators came to this industy such as HUTCH, Tigo etc but still, Dialog GSM is the number one. (Just to mention, I too use a Dialog and I'm satisfied with their service) But, Will they be able to keep their position after the arrival of India's Number one Airtel?

Comments plz...

Edited November 25, 2007 by raveen

[GihanFX]

Its Like this Dilaog GSM has a gud replutation and they use Advance Technology too, so Most people still prefere Dialog GSM, but as i know there are 10 Mill Hutch sim's sold after they came to sri lanka, After Celtell Became Tigo people didnt like the name and most ads at all but Mobiltel is goin ok

I only know abt Pre Paid cus we are in that business , Pre paid is dominated by Dialog, then Tigo and Hutch ( actually both are same ) Mobitel is last

Now Dilaog Sim is around 350Rs Mobiltell 250 Tigo 250 Hutch 100, so basically if airtell can sell a Pre Paid sim for less than 100Rs then they have a chance to come forward,

Edited November 24, 2007 by GihanFX

[raveen]

  GihanFX said:

Its Like this Dilaog GSM has a gud replutation and they use Advance Technology too, so Most people still prefere Dialog GSM, but as i know there are 10 Mill Hutch sim's sold after they came to sri lanka, After Celtell Became Tigo people didnt like the name and most ads at all but Mobiltel is goin ok

I only know abt Pre Paid cus we are in that business , Pre paid is dominated by Dialog, then Tigo and Hutch ( actually both are same ) Mobitel is last

Now Dilaog Sim is around 350Rs Mobiltell 250 Tigo 250 Hutch 100, so basically if airtell can sell a Pre Paid sim for less than 100Rs then they have a chance to come forward,

Im not sure about the prices of sims bt as i heard, airtel call charges will be much less than dialog and other networks, Also technology-wise i think they will be good as dialog as they have already got the 3G licence. Anyway im engaged in the advertising field so from my point of view, im 100% agreed, tigo advertising campaign was a total disaster. It didnt build the brand BUT it just made it more bad and worse. They used african-like ppl on thier tv commercials, press ads and on hordings. And for thier out-door promotions they used a gang-of people who run around roads wearing funny faces which was a kinda joke.

I think Airtel will have much better quality advertising campaigns as they already have good meterial which they use in India (I mean TV and newspaper ads) and they know the subject "advertising" much better (just like dialog ppl do)

Edited November 24, 2007 by raveen

[GihanFX]

  raveen said:

Im not sure about the prices of sims bt as i heard, airtel call charges will be much less than dialog and other networks, Also technology-wise i think they will be good as dialog as they have already got the 3G licence. Anyway im engaged in the advertising field so from my point of view, im 100% agreed, tigo advertising campaign was a total disaster. It didnt build the brand BUT it just made it more bad and worse. They used african-like ppl on thier tv commercials, press ads and on hordings. And for thier out-door promotions they used a gang-of people who run around roads wearing funny faces which was a kinda joke.

I think Airtel will have much better quality advertising campaigns as they already have good meterial which they use in India (I mean TV and newspaper ads) and they know the subject "advertising" much better (just like dialog ppl do)

Yeah Tigo always orgernise parties and show their Latest Crap Adverts and waste money, Abt the african like people, yes many reputed shops rejected their Display Boards cus the images they put are African, and if u saw the 2007 Tigo Calanders they are gud for Africa,

Yes if Airtell Call chargers will low than others and if the covarage will be gud then they can challange Dialog

[raveen]

  GihanFX said:

Yeah Tigo always orgernise parties and show their Latest Crap Adverts and waste money, Abt the african like people, yes many reputed shops rejected their Display Boards cus the images they put are African, and if u saw the 2007 Tigo Calanders they are gud for Africa,

Yes if Airtell Call chargers will low than others and if the covarage will be gud then they can challange Dialog

yeah 'coverage' is a main issue and it should be perfect, else airtel will be another hutch...

[Kim]

  raveen said:

DialogGSM, Sri lanka's #1 mobile phone network provider recently announced that they have lost Rs 500 mil. bux from their subsidiary company DialogTv. According to the CEO of DialogTv, Mr.Naushad Perera, DialogTv has won a customer base of 45,000 with-in 9 months. But still they havent make any profit out of them. Whats the reason? inefficiency? High Expenses? However Dialog share prices have gone down from Rs 26.00 to around Rs 20.00 (some says thats bcoz of the budget)

At this situation, Bharathi Airtel (India's #1) which handles 50 million mobile accounts in India, annonced that they will commence business in Sri Lanka from March 2008. It has already registered the business in Sri Lanka under the name "Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd" as a BOI Project. And also They have reserved the web doamin www.airtel.com.lk under thier company. So we can expect them soon. According to the rumors, Airtel is going to slash the Sri Lankan mobile market with their cheap call charges.

As we have seen in the history, several new operators came to this industy such as HUTCH, Tigo etc but still, Dialog GSM is the number one. (Just to mention, I too use a Dialog and I'm satisfied with their service) But, Will they be able to keep their position after the arrival of India's Number one Airtel?

Comments plz...

u can add Mobitel on the list too and, Question!

[gpmac]

competition is always good Airtel coming to SL is great news to all mobile phones

but a word on Airtel, ive used them in india there r not as good as Dialog, in my experience

but the geographics in SL might mean a better service here, compared to india

Dialog and other mobile phones customers can expect the a slash in prices, so thats good news for all of us

[raveen]

  Kim said:

u can add Mobitel on the list too and, Question!

sorry kim it was a mistake. anyway i added it now. thanks for the remind.

Edited November 25, 2007 by raveen

[raveen]

  gpmac said:

competition is always good Airtel coming to SL is great news to all mobile phones

but a word on Airtel, ive used them in india there r not as good as Dialog, in my experience

but the geographics in SL might mean a better service here, compared to india

Dialog and other mobile phones customers can expect the a slash in prices, so thats good news for all of us

yeah according to econ rules, competition is always good for consumers. but just to mention that if you take the local television and radio, more and more channels are comming but the industry is getting cheaper.

anyway i havnt experienced airtel so i dont know how is their service. dialog is doing a great job so far. hope they will keep it up.

[DCL]

  raveen said:

DialogGSM, Sri lanka's #1 mobile phone network provider recently announced that they have lost Rs 500 mil. bux from their subsidiary company DialogTv. According to the CEO of DialogTv, Mr.Naushad Perera, DialogTv has won a customer base of 45,000 with-in 9 months. But still they havent make any profit out of them. Whats the reason? inefficiency? High Expenses? However Dialog share prices have gone down from Rs 26.00 to around Rs 20.00 (some says thats bcoz of the budget)

At this situation, Bharathi Airtel (India's #1) which handles 50 million mobile accounts in India, annonced that they will commence business in Sri Lanka from March 2008. It has already registered the business in Sri Lanka under the name "Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd" as a BOI Project. And also They have reserved the web doamin www.airtel.com.lk under thier company. So we can expect them soon. According to the rumors, Airtel is going to slash the Sri Lankan mobile market with their cheap call charges.

As we have seen in the history, several new operators came to this industy such as HUTCH, Tigo etc but still, Dialog GSM is the number one. (Just to mention, I too use a Dialog and I'm satisfied with their service) But, Will they be able to keep their position after the arrival of India's Number one Airtel?

Comments plz...

All these years no man able to Challenge Dr.Hans(CEO of Dialog), Now here's a women coming up to challenge him.(Heared that the CEO of AIR TEL is a women).Lets wait & see who wins the battle. And one thing I'm working in factory which got abt 3000 employees, Dialog has started give free connection each & every one which got out going free facility with in the company connections.

Let's see what will be the AIRTEL strategy?? Totally outgoing free & charge only monthly rental ????

[fuzzo]

  GihanFX said:

but as i know there are 10 Mill Hutch sim's sold after they came to sri lanka,

i think you meant to say 1 million..not 10.. SL's total mob phone population is under 10 mil.

[GihanFX]

  fuzzo said:

i think you meant to say 1 million..not 10.. SL's total mob phone population is under 10 mil.

Yeap sorry my bad

"" Colombo, 3 October 2007 - Hutchison Telecommunications Lanka (Pvt) Ltd (“Hutchison Telecom Lanka”) today announced that the company had surpassed the one million customer milestone reflecting the continuous efforts to cater for customers’ mobile communications needs since the launch of GSM prepaid service under the brand ‘Hutch’ in 2004.""

[raveen]

  DCL said:

Totally outgoing free & charge only monthly rental ????

?? wt did u mean? tolly free outgoing? how much is the rental?

[thebest]

  DCL said:

All these years no man able to Challenge Dr.Hans(CEO of Dialog), Now here's a women coming up to challenge him.(Heared that the CEO of AIR TEL is a women).Lets wait & see who wins the battle. And one thing I'm working in factory which got abt 3000 employees, Dialog has started give free connection each & every one which got out going free facility with in the company connections.

Let's see what will be the AIRTEL strategy?? Totally outgoing free & charge only monthly rental ????

outgoing free?

[SeanD]

  thebest said:

outgoing free?

I remember mobitel tried doing that when they relaunched themselves but it ended up a fiasco, and people with existing connections were getting billed for the free minutes spent by people with the new connections that were getting outgoing free

[dinosh]

Dialog also has provided out going free in some packages used by the coporates. For me out going is not charged when i call another official dialog no in our office. also all employees who use official mobiles were offered a 2nd sim which has free out going within the official no & your 2nd sim.

[dinosh]

  DCL said:

All these years no man able to Challenge Dr.Hans(CEO of Dialog), Now here's a women coming up to challenge him.(Heared that the CEO of AIR TEL is a women).Lets wait & see who wins the battle. And one thing I'm working in factory which got abt 3000 employees, Dialog has started give free connection each & every one which got out going free facility with in the company connections.

Let's see what will be the AIRTEL strategy?? Totally outgoing free & charge only monthly rental ????

Most of the Sri Lankan market is still open and is accesible to all operators. Hutch has been successful & catured the rural market.

Have to sit back & see until airtel launches .Any idea when Airtel is commencing commercial operations??

[Arc Angel]

  dinosh said:

Most of the Sri Lankan market is still open and is accesible to all operators. Hutch has been successful & catured the rural market.

Have to sit back & see until airtel launches .Any idea when Airtel is commencing commercial operations??

Airtel has stated that they will not commence mainstream operations till they have islandwide coverage. anticipated launch date is March 08. but could be later.

[dinosh]

  Arc Angel said:

Airtel has stated that they will not commence mainstream operations till they have islandwide coverage. anticipated launch date is March 08. but could be later.

Heard that they will be using the SLT towers?? is this true??

[Arc Angel]

  dinosh said:

Heard that they will be using the SLT towers?? is this true??

recent change in trc regulation allows the sharing of towers by multiple operators, provided that the party that errected the tower install sinage confirming their identity. Event at present there are towers which are shared by multiple operators.

Airtel has a HUGE budget specifically for capital investment, and a good chunk of their capital will go towards infrastructure related to coverage.

so yes, they prolly will share towers, not only of SLT, but any other provider whom whishes to allow them to.

[Pericles]

  Arc Angel said:

recent change in trc regulation allows the sharing of towers by multiple operators, provided that the party that errected the tower install sinage confirming their identity. Event at present there are towers which are shared by multiple operators.

Airtel has a HUGE budget specifically for capital investment, and a good chunk of their capital will go towards infrastructure related to coverage.

so yes, they prolly will share towers, not only of SLT, but any other provider whom whishes to allow them to.

Thats no good. As soon as one operator gets overloaded the tower goes down and all operators using that tower loose service.

[Arc Angel]

  Pericles said:

Thats no good. As soon as one operator gets overloaded the tower goes down and all operators using that tower loose service.

well peri, i'n not sure that the individual towers are effected by network overload (congestion). Congestion depends on the utilisation of the individiual netwok. so higher networks or networks which do not operate at 100% - 125% capacity will not have congestion.

but if a tower does go down, then subsribers of all the networks which use that particular tower would lose network coverage (signals). And this occurence is more common than one would imagine ;-)

[Ripper]

Ehem...interesting topic

Just d add my 2 cents

I'm also involved in Mobitel adverts...

One thing i like about TIGO is that their retail/outdoor branding is the most consistent out of all other operators. Everybody else lacks one unique look, identity except TIGO... the whole afro thing being not liked is a different issue

I think TIGO wanted to capture a certain audience...the colombo teen yuppies i think by looking at their communications...

But as a network they suck... It's very difficult to connect to a TIGO line even in colombo in peak hours... My mechanic has a TIGO and it's a bloody curse trying to get in touch with him...

As far as Dialog goes...IMHO... they captured and audience of believers in the brand and they are consistently "seen as" being able to deliver their brand promise. Future today.

Dialog 3G was launched long time ago with big noise but coverage was very very limited... It only worked near their head office... But they screamed out saying the latest technology is out and available... So people see them as the leader in technology which works for them like a charm.

Mobitel on the other who have had the same stuff almost at the same time didn't capitalize on things and always had to play catch up...and sadly they are still doing that... But mobitel have come a long way after getting beaten up pretty badly by dialog.

One good thing with dialog is that they have a very proactive team and each of them is empowered to do the job they are pretty good at. They seem to have the speed to respond to market conditions much faster than any other operator at present.

Dialog's management hasn't changed and the brand hasn't changed since the inception... Most other operators had problems in this area too...

Even that has given dialog and edge over competition...

As far as Airtel goes... I'm sure some will have to revert to the whole "sri lankan" thing when the "indian" company launches itself here. And since people are in their 'patriotic" mood these days...it won't be a bad ploy either. And airtel will have to get their coverage sorted pretty fast to be able to take on networks like dialog and mobitel... Even if they have big budgets etc it's not gonna be a cake walk for them...

But it'll be a nice battle to observe from a marketing point of view

[Ripper]

  Arc Angel said:

well peri, i'n not sure that the individual towers are effected by network overload (congestion). Congestion depends on the utilisation of the individiual netwok. so higher networks or networks which do not operate at 100% - 125% capacity will not have congestion.

but if a tower does go down, then subsribers of all the networks which use that particular tower would lose network coverage (signals). And this occurence is more common than one would imagine ;-)

Arc Angel

If my memory serves me right... individual tower DO get overloaded if it has to make connections beyond it's handling capacity.

A single tower can have multiple receiver/transmitters... and these can be from different networks... Each networks receiver/transmitter has a max load that it can handle and if that goes beyond the limit that tower can't take any more calls from users and the network will divert the call to the next closest tower to see if the call can be connected through that....

Most towers coverage areas overlap each other so there are instances when one tower gets loaded another takes on the job...

I attended a technical seminar of one of our clients and this tech buff was talking about all of these things

Hope i got it right

[Arc Angel]

  Ripper said:

Arc Angel

If my memory serves me right... individual tower DO get overloaded if it has to make connections beyond it's handling capacity.

A single tower can have multiple receiver/transmitters... and these can be from different networks... Each networks receiver/transmitter has a max load that it can handle and if that goes beyond the limit that tower can't take any more calls from users and the network will divert the call to the next closest tower to see if the call can be connected through that....

Most towers coverage areas overlap each other so there are instances when one tower gets loaded another takes on the job...

I attended a technical seminar of one of our clients and this tech buff was talking about all of these things

Hope i got it right

yes. you got 95% it right . If the dialog reciver/transmitters reach their limit it doesnt have an impact on mobitel's or tigo's or hutch's reciver/transmitters (assuming they are all using the same tower).

Peri's question in the nature of 'will additional networks using the same tower effect my network'. To which the answer would be 'no'. Dialog or mobitel (or any other operatot) would work fine even if all other telco's shared the tower as long as their respective reciever/transmitter doesn't get clogged up.

What you said would be 100% correct in a situation where a single network uses a tower.

Edited November 26, 2007 by Arc Angel