Sri Lanka’s Dialog Telekom plans to allocate $150 million to expand its network

Sri Lanka’s Dialog Telekom, a unit of Telekom Malaysia (TM), is S reportedly allocating $150 million (RM552 million) in 2006 to expand its overall network and strengthen infrastructure. Of this, 56 per cent will go to mobile communications, followed by 19 percentto broadband, 16 per cent to backbone infrastructure and coverage, and 9 per cent to customer support. It plans to eventually obtain a licence to commercially operate the network. The company also plans to expand its current network of 600 base stations to around 900 in 2006. Dialog Telekom is the largest mobile operator in Sri Lanka with 2.12 million subscribers as of December 31, 2005, representing a market share of more than 60 per cent.