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EGOs set new paradigms for international calls By Akhry
Ameer The companies resorted to heavy promotions with many of them taking out full-page advertisements in the newspapers. Heading the field was local mobile operator Dialog GSM that slashed its rates the day after they were awarded the licence. Their rates dropped as much as Rs. 25/- per minute for calling popular countries like Australia, Canada, Singapore, USA and UK. The others followed in the ensuing weeks with the market settling for rates between Rs. 20/- and Rs. 60/- per minute. The analysis
of the advertisements also showed Dialog heading the coverage list
offering promotional rates to 82 countries. All other local telecom
operators averaged 50 countries where promotional rates could be
used. These new rates would eventually have commensurate effects
on other related international calls such as roaming facilities
offered by mobile operators. The new paradigms
include aspects like per second billing, fixed rate for any time
of day, moving away from features such as peak/off-peak rates and
billing in six second units. The promotional rates are expected
to last till around June, by which time the industry hopes to get
a realistic estimate of traffic to various countries. However, there
would not be drastic differences in the rates, according to one
of the operators. Most external
gateways can be accessed from any type of phone line through calling
cards. Some operators preferred to adopt a wait and see approach
on this concept, while restricting their gateways to their existing
subscriber base. However, it
is learnt from informed sources that most operators are still connecting
through the Sri Lanka Telecom gateway, the incumbent operator which
enjoyed a monopoly of this telecommunication segment virtually till
February this year. This may be due to time taken to set up their
own infrastructure or attractive costs. Meanwhile, some other operators
like Dialog GSM have reported routing calls through their own direct
gateway links to hubs in London and Malaysia. Another non-telecom
operator competing for market share is the Internet service provider,
Lanka Internet, who also ran advertisements with promotional rates.
A list of 28 companies have been posted as licensees as of March
21, 2003 on the website of the Telecom Regulatory Commission. Strangely
the incumbent national operator Sri Lanka Telecom, who lost their
monopoly status and still an EGO is not included on the list. The issuing of licences was delayed after the policy ran into a heated dispute between local telecom operators and regulators earlier in the year until a consensus was reached on February 21, 2003. The local operators agreed on a declining tariff structure spread over five years to protect their interests against the new EGOs that may emerge. Diversified IT expertise at IMEXPRO 2003 Sixteen local
software companies will highlight Sri Lankan software expertise
with a joint industry pavilion at the IMPEXPRO 2003 International
Trade Fair held from today in Colombo. The two-day event is organized
by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce to coincide with the Indian Ocean
Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) annual conference.
Co-ordinated
by the Software Exporters' Association (SEA), the pavilion is the
first of many efforts to project the country as a software development
destination in keeping with the government's e-Sri Lanka initiative. The software
country pavilion comprising member companies of the SEA and the
Sri Lanka Association of Software Industry (SLASI) will showcase
a range of locally made software products from traditional solutions
in finance, logistics, inventory and insurance to Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP), e-business and mobile Internet solutions. "We have
taken it upon ourselves to help implement certain eSri Lanka initiatives,"
said Manoj Mohinani, Chairman - Marketing Committee of the SEA. The association
aims to make local corporates, government policy makers and countries
in the region aware of the local software development skills. The local companies
believe that there is very little local awareness of their skills
and hence the reach for overseas products and solutions. Many local
business leaders, delegates of the IOR-ARC conference and international
visitors have been extended personal invitations for discussions
at the pavilion. Over 219 delegates
from more than 25 countries are expected to participate at the trade
fair to be held at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre. Many participating
companies have already established international business links
but are looking forward to enhance their reach. The diversified
portfolios of participants include a strong service offering in
customized offshore development and consultancy. The participating companies are Affno (Pvt) Ltd, AsiaSoft Ltd, Computer Systems Limited, Debug Computer Software, EuroCenter DDC (Pvt) Ltd, eSenze Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, ExcelSoft (Pvt) Ltd, EWIS Solutions (Pvt) Ltd, Senid Software International (Pvt) Ltd, Informatics International Limited, ITABS Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, John Keells Computer Services (Pvt) Limited, and Millennium Information Technologies Ltd. The companies
will also be holding short presentations within the pavilion throughout
the day, on the days of the exhibition. SEA is the
leading representative body of local software developers and is
a member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
Real estate via the Net Looking to buy,
sell, lease, rent real estate property? It is time to welcome your
new agent, www.lankaproperty.net. This website launched in December 2002 is a one-stop shop for all real estate dealings in the country and already lists over Rs. 1,000 million worth of properties. Property owners wishing to sell, lease, or rent their properties, both commercial and industrial can log on to the site and register online or through regular mail describing the property. The site has details such as expected price, location, layout plan and proximity to the nearest hospital and school as well as pictures of the property. Similarly, those
looking for property can browse by area, residential or commercial
purpose, price range, and buy or rent criteria. If interested users
may send an email and get in touch with the relevant parties. Properties
on the site are varied ranging from palatial homes to office and
commercial premises to land and industrial buildings. All users need
to initially register themselves as the site also involves a Client
Management System where administrators can match buyer and seller
requirements through its database and contact the respective parties. A major bank
has also tied up with the firm to market foreclosed properties on
the site, while more banks have expressed interest. Other services
include property related products and services such as bathroom
fittings, aluminum, property finance, architects and contractors. Users in Sri
Lanka and overseas can scout for a prospective deal leisurely 24
hours of the day. Since the launch, within a few months interest
has already grown and the site is averaging 19,000 hits per week. The owners
of the site, EwareTech (Pvt) Ltd, started out as a software development
company and have now branched into brokering after their local innovation.
Future plans include listing selected magazines and publications, restaurants, shopping and retail premises, and advertising on its home page making it a comprehensive web portal. The company also plans to expand the online concept into a printed newsletter to be distributed free with similar property details. International acclaim for local ICT innovation Local mobile
operator MTN Networks (Pvt) Ltd brought recognition not only to
itself but also the country's expertise in technological innovation
by winning the award for Best Use of Wireless for Emergency Solutions
at the GSM (Global Standard for Mobile communication) World Congress
in Cannes, France. Dialog's award winning innovation was in the form of an SMS (Short Message Service) Blood Appeal, Matching and Donor Management Application. The application harnesses the true usage of Information Communications Technology (ICT) combining mobile communication, Internet application and networking. Putting a simple
concept of transmitting SMS broadcasts to subscribers requesting
for blood on appeals made by some customers, Dialog developed a
fully automated application platform for its network. The application
allows subscribers to register as willing blood donors identifying
their blood types. Thereafter any Dialog user in need of blood makes
a request for a specific blood group. This is checked for availability
among registered donors, and when potential matches are found, SMS
alerts giving contact details of the person requesting blood which
are sent to potential donors. The process is fully automated from
registering and requesting to matching and alerting donors. "We choose
to inform the donor the contact details of the request to ensure
his privacy, and allowing them to act on their own. The concept
was actually thought of when we received requests for SMS broadcasts
during the dengue epidemic last year. It was later that we decided
to take it to a national level," said Mothilal de Silva, General
Manager - Corporate Planning, Quality Systems and Market Development. Taking it to
a national level, Dialog under its Change Trust Fund teamed with
the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS). As a second phase the concept was realigned to suit NBTS and World Health Organization policies. Under the policy, the new application at NBTS accepts donor registrations via SMS, Internet, and a phone hotline. Thereafter donors are requested to call over at one of 30 centres in the country where they will be screened and registered. However, the requests for blood can only be made through the hotline. The judging
panel justified their award to Dialog from the short list of operators
from France, Turkey and Czechoslovakia saying it was "a novel
way of using existing technology to counter a wide-spread public
health problem". De Silva said
that upgrading and developing the system was one of trial and error,
as there is no benchmark elsewhere. However, after
the award many European countries and the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) in USA have begun talking to Dialog to implement
a similar solution in their respective countries. The award is also a unique achievement for Dialog as it is the only operator to win one of the nine awards for three consecutive years. The GSM World Congress is an annual event where its membership of over 690 wireless network operators, manufacturers and service providers meet. The association this year received over 400 entries for the nine awards at the congress sponsored by chipmaker Intel Corporation. Other award winners included telecom giants like UK-based Vodafone, 3G Lab and Commtag. The contribution
by Dialog GSM, the leading mobile operator with over 500,000 customers,
to NBTS comprises the complete application, hardware infrastructure
such as hotlines, web servers, hubs and switches, and a dedicated
128kbps link from the MTN Networks office. Doctors at NBTS now also
have access to the Internet for their research work. The total investment
by Dialog is over Rs. 3 million. The operator had also pledged its
commitment to maintain and upgrade the services. Promotion and
development of a blood donation culture in the country is considered
to be inadequate and hence people often resort to unconventional
methods of sourcing blood at times of need. The blood supply among the various blood banks is shorter than the increasing demand as a result of dengue epidemics, traffic accidents, disease, strife and previously the war in the country. News in Brief JKCS largest outsourcing partner of Mercator John Keells
Computer Services (JKCS) became the largest outsourcing partner
of Mercator with the contract to provide Offshore Software Support,
Maintenance and Development for Emirates Customer Loyalty Programme.
Mercator is the Information Technology subsidiary of Emirates and
a leading supplier of IT solutions to the global air travel industry.
JKCS already has partnerships with Mercator managing the advanced
software development centre in Colombo. Under the new $2 million contract JKCS will handle Customer Relationship Information System (CRIS) and Skywards, the Customer Loyalty Programmes offered by Mercator for Emirates, SriLankan and other international airlines. The agreement with JKCS includes providing pre-sales support, customization, product implementation and post-implementation support to Mercator's clients as well as maintaining version control and documentation. The new support centre will be housed in JKCS's office premises in Colombo complete with electronic and ICT equipment, and manned by a team of 20 highly skilled IT professionals. JKCS is the software services subsidiary of John Keells Holdings Ltd, established in 1994 to cater to the software services requirements of demanding multinational clients. JKCS provides offshore-dedicated development and support centres for Fortune 500 companies and world leaders in their respective fields such as Emirates Airlines, Braathens Airlines, Norway, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), Japan, P&O Nedlloyd and Mashreq Bank, UAE. New
country head at Cisco Cisco Systems
recently announced the appointment of Shirish Joshi as its new Country
Head - Channels for India and the SAARC region. Joshi replaced Jangoo
Dalal who has been actively working with the Internet networking
company's local partners. Jangoo Dalal assumes a new position in
Cisco's Asia Pacific Channel Organization. Shirish Joshi
has about 20 years' of experience in the Indian IT distribution
sector. He is also the architect of Cisco's Tier 2 market thrust
for the last five years. The new Country Head joined Cisco India
in 1996 and is one of the company's early employees in the country. Cisco also
announced the launch of a new Advanced Replacement support programme
for its Tier 2 channel partners in India and SAARC. The programme
enables Cisco's distributors and resellers to receive Advance Replacement
Next Business Day (ARNBD) shipment support for business critical
networking gear for customers across the SAARC region. This means
that resellers now do not have to invest in spares and will be able
to boost their maintenance contract service agreements with clients.
Cisco Systems enjoys a wide presence in the Sri Lankan market with
leading banks, airlines and IT companies using its solutions. hSenid
ties-up with Quintum Technologies - USA hSenid Software
International announced a tie-up with Quintum Technologies, USA
to enhanced voice transmission over Wide Area Networks (WAN). Quintum's
Tenor suite of products adds value to Small and Medium Enterprises
by utilising the existing data networks for Voice over IP (VoIP)
transmission, thus maximising the company's network resources. The multi-path
architecture of the application connects the voice network through
either PBX or phone, and the public switched telephone network (PSTN)
to the data network through a 10/100 Ethernet interface. Patented
SelectNet technology in the Tenor suite also monitors calls for
jitter, packet loss and latency, and is capable of transparently
switching an active call to the voice network whenever conditions
demand. hSenid Software International is a Client Server and Internet-based software development company, specializing in Human Resource Management, and Payroll and Attendance software. hSenid is also a business partner of Lucent Technologies in Sri Lanka. |
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