The recent acquisition of Suntel by locally dominant mobile operator Dialog has already resulted in what could arguably be considered Sri Lanka's most powerful telcom group despite legal formalities having yet to be concluded.
According to former Suntel chief Jerry Huxtable, whose new designation, as of a week ago, is Chief Officer of Dialog Enterprise; Suntel will not become a standalone business unit of Dialog, rather the former's corporate customers are already being serviced by Dialog's enterprise arm. Further, it was also indicated that Dialog Enterprise is currently offering virtually all the same services that Suntel used to offer its customers. Meanwhile, also revealed by Mr. Huxtable, Suntel's CDMA customers are now being handled by Dialog's fixed arm with the eventual outcome being that these customers would come under the Dialog banner (following the legalities of the deal being completed) and, as such, being serviced, and even billed, under Dialog. These developments also appears to confirm ongoing media speculation that Dialog had in fact acquired Suntel mainly due to this company being perceived as a formidable threat to its corporate offering, which is a suggestion that has been also supported by key Suntel staff now having taken up posts at Dialog Enterprise.
Speaking to the Business Times at an event this week announcing a two-year deal whereby Dialog Enterprise would become the sole local provider for networking giant Cisco's WebEx video and rich media conferencing facility, which has around 50% global market share in its field; Mr. Huxtable also went out to add that, beyond the legal formalities, all that was left to complete Suntel's incorporation into Dialog was some network integration work.
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