Dialog Axiata

As Jeff Daniel learns, the very latest telecommunications technology isn’t necessarily found in Western countries.

It’s not so long ago that travellers from the West, wanting to make a phone call back home from some less developed country in the world, could be left tearing their hair out in frustration. Back street booths, poor quality and unreliable connections were commonplace and were easily disparaged as examples of lack of technological development.

These days, thanks to new digital technology, old weaknesses in the analogue system have been leapfrogged and replaced with services that are comparable with anywhere in Europe. In fact, in a space of less than 15 years, Dialog Axiata in Sri Lanka has gone from zero to a 2.5G, 3G and 3.5G communications network capable of supporting the very latest in multimedia and mobile internet. Now, it has gone one step further by announcing that the company has switched on its 4G LTE Network in Colombo—said to be the first LTE pilot network in Southern Asia.

Dialog is not Sri Lanka’s only communications provider but it is certainly the most dominant and leads the pack in terms of technical offering. Its seven million-strong customer base means that around one in three of the country’s 20 million population is connected via Dialog. It has by far the best mobile coverage, with over 2,000 GSM and over 1,200 3G base station sites distributed across all nine provinces of Sri Lanka. Approximately 78 per cent of the country’s land mass is covered and 96 per cent of the population, including those areas formerly under the control of the Tamil Tigers. Looking outwards, customers are linked to over 200 global destinations via international roaming, including 3G services.

Dialog Axiata is a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad, previously known as TMI, which is one of the largest Asian telecommunication companies, focusing on emerging markets that offer high-growth and low mobile penetration. As well as its dominance in Sri Lanka, Axiata has controlling interests in Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Cambodia, plus significant strategic stakes in India and Singapore. The Malaysian holding company has further assets in telecommunication operations in Thailand, Pakistan and Iran. The group’s mobile subsidiaries and associates operate under the brand name Celcom in Malaysia, XL in Indonesia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, Robi in Bangladesh, HELLO in Cambodia, Idea and Spice in India, M1 in Singapore and MTCE in Iran.

Dialog, a company with the distinction of being the first on the Colombo stock market with a market capitalisation exceeding $1 billion, recently posted results showing that group sales grew 10 per cent compared with the previous year to a record Rs 33.7 billion for the nine months to September 2011. Net profit for the same period amounted to Rs 3.9 billion, up by four per cent on the previous year.

In addition to its core business of mobile telephony, Dialog offers a wide range of multi-sensory connectivity services. Dialog TV is a direct-to-home satellite television service, while Dialog Global is the conduit for international telecommunication services. Both fixed-line services and broadband internet comes from Dialog Broadband whilst Dialog Tele-Infrastructure takes care of the nuts and bolts of the network.

With such a strong connection between Sri Lanka and the UK, it’s not surprising that a number of selective and specific services have sprung up to take care of consumers’ needs. Dialog Axiata has partnered with London-based QiComm, an MVNO to provide a unique calling service for Sri Lankans living in the UK. The Dialog VIZZ connection not only provides discounted call rates to Sri Lanka but offers the unusual opportunity for people in London to top up credit on any Dialog number anywhere in Sri Lanka. 

Over the short period is has been in operation, Dialog has introduced numerous innovations to the Sri Lankan market. It was instrumental in extending the scope of mobile telephony to mobile data within the first few years of operation. It was the first operator to offer SMS (and later colour SMS), mobile email and information on demand services, well ahead of regional networks. The list is extensive: MMS Morphing, Songcatcher, Background Music, Phone Backup, Dialog Messenger, News Alerts and a host of 3G services including video calls, IDD video calls, video conferencing, 3G roaming, mobile surveillance and 3G portal.

Dialog unveiled eZ Pay, South Asia’s first mobile commerce initiative in 2007, enabling customers to purchase goods, pay bills, transfer money and perform banking transactions via their mobile phones. Also in 2007, Dialog Broadband Networks became the first operator in Sri Lanka to introduce WiMAX-based broadband wireless access services.

In the process, Dialog’s service team continues to win accolades and international recognition for world-class service. Over and above its ISO 9001 certification, Dialog was the first South Asian company to receive Customer Service Quality Standard certification from the Asia Pacific Customer Service Consortium. Over its short life it has been judged Service Centre of the Year and Best In Class for Proactive Service Management, as well as being honoured for its customer management strategy at the annual GCCRM Customer Management Awards in China.

Following this tradition of being at the helm of technological innovation within the region, the next step is to turn the fledgling 4G pilot network operating in the capital Colombo into an affordable, country-wide success. Currently running in several key zones within the city, speeds in excess of 100 MBps have already been achieved in indoor demonstration mode and 40 to 50 MBps in outdoor mobile usage trials within the city.

Dialog is also a Vodafone partner network in Sri Lanka. Through this partnership, Dialog subscribers are offered better rates when roaming with Vodafone networks. Subscribers enjoy use of special devices by Vodafone such as Android phones, tablets & pads, Blackberries and so on, at competitive rates. Vodafone subscribers using the Dialog service enjoy the same facilities they enjoy at home when they roam with Dialog, thanks to this partnership.

Before too long, foreign visitors to Sri Lanka might discover that this rapidly developing Asian country actually offers mobile telecommunications in advance of those the visitor has at home. http://www.dialog.lk/