12 January,2009 01:25 PM IST | | PTI
India's largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel today launched its mobile services in Sri Lanka under 'Airtel' brand and announced a total investment of 200 million dollar till 2012 in the neighbouring country.
Of this, the company has already invested 100 million dollar to commission a sizeable network in just over an year, and the rest would be invested in the next three years, the company said.
Commenting on the development, Bharti Group Chairman Sunil Mittal said, "We are extremely honoured to present Airtel to Sri Lanka. At Bharti, we have always believed in undertaking business projects that are transformational and have a positive impact on the society at large.
"We are delighted at being given this opportunity to serve the people of Sri Lanka and contribute to the growth story of the country.
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It will be Airtel's endeavour to drive affordability in the Sri Lankan market...We are confident that with our experience of 88 million customers, we will make a positive impact on the telecom land space of Sri Lanka," he added.
This is Bharti's third global venture after Seychelles, Jersey and Guernsey. In line with the innovative business model based on outsourcing that it pioneered, Bharti Airtel has created an ecosystem of partners for its Sri Lankan operations.
"It has entered into a three-year managed network deal with Huawei, partnered with IBM to manage its comprehensive IT infrastructure and application requirements and selected iSmart Times as its customer care partner," the company said.
Bharti Airtel would be offering both 2G and next generation 3G mobile services along with a host of value added services to the customers.
Asked about the tariffs, the company said the subscribers would be offered simple tariff plans and they would be liberated from the concept of peak and off-peak call rates by offering standard tariffs throughout the day and night.
Bharti Airtel is one of Asia's leading integrated telecom service providers, offering all types of communication services be it mobile basic, long distance, DTH, internet and undersea cable among others.
