Sri Lanka has taken everyone by surprise by becoming one of the fastest
growing telecom markets in the SAARC region. It was the first country in South
Asia to launch mobile services and,
today, the country has a teledensity of 36% and very high ARPUs for operators.
Nalin Perera, chief marketing officer, Mobitel, Sri Lanka, shares his views on
the market and different initiatives taken by the company to provide
out-of-the-box services to its customers.
What is the current scenario of the Sri Lankan telecom and BPO market?
Sri Lanka is a highly developed telecom market. It was the first country in
South Asia to launch mobile services. The country has a teledensity of around
36% and most of it comes from rural areas. The ARPU (average revenue per user)
is also very high. The country has a good working community. The BPO boom, which
India is witnessing now, has existed in Sri Lanka for a long time. But, it is
not serving global companies and is not properly organized.
Has the growth in telecommunications been affected by political conflicts,
terrorism, and geographical structure?
I would say that all the above three have done a great favor to the telecom
market. To some extent, Sri Lanka depends on foreign remittances coming to the
country from its people living in different parts of the world. It happens with
every country and Sri Lanka is no exception. Out of the population of 20 mn,
around 0.8 mn live outside the country. In villages, migration is higher than in
urban areas due to terrorism and higher cost of living. People need to be in
touch with their relatives and family members and there are no other avenues to
spend money. All this has worked in favor of the telecom growth in the country.
When did Mobitel enter the market?
Mobitel was incorporated in 1993 and was the second mobile telephony provider to
enter the Sri Lanka market. Originally a collaboration between Sri Lanka Telecom
(SLT) and Telstra Australia, Mobitel has been wholly owned by SLT since November
2002. Following the successful implementation and operation of an AMPS/TDMA
network in the country, Mobitel launched its GSM operations in January 2004 with
the deployment of a fully-fledged GSM network in the 1800 MHz band, which is
EDGE/GPRS-enabled. In 2005 and 2006, Mobitel traded the 800 MHz band for slots
made available from the 900 MHz spectrums. With this enhancement, Mobitel
embarked on a field trial of 3G at the First International Buddhist Conference
held in 2006, setting the stage for the launch of its 3G services in Sri Lanka.
 |
Nalin Perera,
CMO, Mobitel, Sri Lanka |
What are the things you keep in mind before making strategies for the
company?
We believe that technology for its own sake is meaningless, and, thus,
foster an organizational culture that focuses on customer centricity. This
philosophy, which is a way of life at Mobitel, has enabled us to build
long-lasting relationship with our customers. The 100% customer growth between
2005 and 2006 speaks for itself.
The features and benefits that we offer are all designed carefully with our
customers' interests in mind. This has enabled us to achieve phenomenal results.
Mobitel has now positioned itself as a leader in the mobile telephony sector.
From here, we will continue to offer even more value to the most important
person on our horizon-our customer.
What are the initiatives taken by Mobitel to serve customers?
Mobitel has spawned several initiatives that have propelled the company forward.
The company's 'SMART 5' product revolutionized mobile subscribers' call patterns
to provide a 24-hour call pricing option that took the market by storm. 'SMART
5' became the single biggest factor contributing to the tremendous growth of
Mobitel's subscriber base.
Other initiatives such as Mobitel's agreement with Sri Lanka Post and a
tie-up with retail giant Singer in the distribution area have contributed to
Mobitel's growth momentum in a significant way.
We have also launched SMART Share, yet another brand introduced by the SMART
Prepaid Service. SMART Share gives customers the freedom to share prepaid credit
with their friends who have SMART prepaid connections. It is a hassle-free way
where balance transfers can be done any time of the day from anywhere among
friends and family. If anyone of your SMART friends runs out of prepaid balance,
you can send a simple command to transfer a portion of balance to your friend's
phone. This service is different from SMART Reload, which is made through a
retailer, where the subscriber account is topped up. The SMART Share sender will
be charged a nominal Rs 2 plus government taxes/levies for each balance
transfer.
What are the recent announcements made by Mobitel for the Sri Lankan
market?
We have just introduced 'M3', the 'super-3.5G' services. Mobitel, having
invested in excess of $200 mn in its 2.5G/3.5G networks, is now fully prepared
to provide Mobitel M3 users the best 'super-3.5G' experience not only in Sri
Lanka, but also in the whole of South Asia. Equipped with a king-size packet
core powered by full duplex High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology, the very
latest 'super-3.5G' network bursts data at a staggering downlink rate of up to
7.2 Mbps and an uplink rate of up to 1.92 Mbps with the use of High-Speed
Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)
technologies, respectively. Collectively, these specifications exceed 3G
services currently available in the Sri Lankan market.
No other operator in Sri Lanka, or for that matter in South Asia, currently
offers HSUPA. The difference is that the M3 service will allow both the
downloading and uploading of large files such as email attachments in a shorter
time than on 2.5G or 3G platforms, helping mobile data users focus their time
more on content and less on waiting. Huawei Technologies of China was awarded
the contract of establishing the 'super-3.5G' network of Mobitel and today the
network covers Colombo, Greater Colombo and most major cities of the country.
Following this launch, we have reopened our flagship center at Mobitel
headquarters to public after an extensive facelift, providing customers with a
brand new look and feel, to take them to a realm of truly third generation
mobile experience. Be it a new connection, a phone setting, or even a bill
payment, once a customer is ushered to a counter, his or her need will be
promptly attended by a Mobitel staff member, who would literally demonstrate the
“always care” attitude while the customer can sink into an easy chair enjoying a
cup of hot coffee.
Any special effort made by Mobitel to reach the rural market?
The rural market has always been a high priority area for Mobitel. We have
increased our reach in the rural market by making recharge coupons available at
post offices. In the next stage, the postman carries a recharge coupon, thus,
making things easier for the rural customer.
What should be the right business model for service providers to gain a
good chunk of customers from the Sri Lankan market?
Operators should make more efforts on thinking out of the box, rather than
focusing on technology. You will have to be innovative. Our rural strategy was
totally based on this philosophy. In the coming days, Mobitel will be actively
introducing new mobile content and services that will benefit from the enhanced
user experience, including the mobile TV. An array of special introductory
offers will be announced in due course.
Kumar Anshuman
anshumank@cybermedia.co.in
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