- Mobitel (Sri Lanka)
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Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel 
Type Limited Industry Mobile Telecommunications Founded 1993 Headquarters Sri Lanka Key people Suren Amarasekera, CEO Products Mobile Parent Sri Lanka Telecom Website mobitel.lk Mobitel (Pvt.) Ltd. is a mobile phone network in Sri Lanka. It is wholly owned by Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). The network offers a variety of services and currently operates a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSPA network utilising 3.5G technology. Mobitel was the first 3.5G operator in Sri Lanka and South Asia. It covers most of Sri Lanka with its GSM network. Mobitel offers both prepaid and postpaid mobile services, along with mobile broadband services using the 3.5G network.
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About Mobitel
Mobitel is considered to be the country's most dynamic mobile telephone operator and is known the 'National' mobile service provider in Sri Lanka. Since being acquired by Sri Lanka Telecom in 2002, it has grown in leaps and bounds and is now on par technologically with the very latest in the telecommunications industry.
The company is continuing on its strategy which is positioned around ‘value innovation’ and ‘customer centricity’. Mobitel has a very strong brand image, with high visibility at strategic locations.
Mobitel has shown their competitive position over the years in terms of formidable distribution, product suit and brand. The features and benefits built into the packages that they offer are all designed carefully, with the customer's best interest regarded highly.
History
Mobitel was incorporated in 1993 as the second mobile telephone provider in the Sri Lankan market. Originally a collaboration between Sri Lanka Telecom and Telstra, 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 800 MHz and 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 spectrum. With this enhancement, Mobitel embarked on a field trial of 3G at the 1st International Buddhist Conference held in 2006, setting the stage for the launch of its 3G services in Sri Lanka.
Investments committed to date for this state-of-the-art technology to provide 3G and GSM totals over US$ 200 million. This included increasing the present number of base stations from 600 to 1,500 by the end of 2008.
In 2009, Mobitel became the official sponsor of the Sri Lankan Cricket Team.[1]
Network
Mobitel currently operates a 3.5G network with HSDPA/HSUPA support and downlink speeds of up to 3.6 Mbit/s and uplink speed up to 1.00Mbit/s. According to speedtest.net Mobitel is the operator to issue the fastest internet connections in Sri Lanka via HSPA, while they have also fully tested out 42Mbit/s downlink HSPA MIMO technology in Colombo. It is also serving customers with over 1500 GSM and 400 3.5G base stations islandwide. On 6 May 2011, Mobitel became the first company in South Asia to trial a network based on 4G technology.
Tariffs and packages
Mobitel offers SMART prepaid and Double M post paid packages, while the Upahara package was available for Sri Lankan government workers for a limited time period. Upahara offered up to five similar Subscriber Identity Modules to be used in the family of the principle customer, at lower rates.
Value Added Services
Mobitel offers a variety of value added services:
- WAP,
- GPRS,
- MMS,
- Closed User Group services,
- SMS banking,
- echannelling,
- directories,
- M3 3.5G services (video calls, video message, HSDPA with uplink up to 1.00 Mbit/s and downlink up to 3.6 Mbit/s),
- Menu based services (OTA) which are updated to the SIM card,
- International Roaming facilities in over 180 countries while including special services such as the Voice Notification messages which alert a person on roaming status and other features such as Call Home and SMS Roaming.
- mFax
- M3 Apps (Powered by Google apps)
- Mtunes
- Live scores of cricket matches
Slogan
The company slogan is "We Care. Always."
References
External links
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