Loud Numbers

February 19, 2006 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s largest cellular phone operator, Monday posted a 44 percent rise in net profits for the 12 months to December, and said it plans to cover 100 percent of the island by end 2007. A unit of Telekom Malaysia, Dialog Telekom, reported a 10.12 billion rupee group net profit, while revenues climbed 42 percent to 25.68 billion rupees, over the same period 2005.

Dialog controls around 60 percent of Sri Lanka’s cellular market, servicing over 3.1 million subscribers.

Bulk of the recent growth has been fuelled by users buying pay-as-you-go cards, commonly referred to as pre-paid customers.

Dialog said their revenue mix consists of:

¢ Pre-paid segment 43 percent,
¢ Post-paid segment 37 percent,
¢ Inbound roaming 4-percent.

Peer-to-Peer SMS or text message revenue continued to represent the largest component of non-voice revenue accounting for six percent of total sales.

Value added services like downloading ring tones and checking out horoscopes accounted for nearly nine percent of total sales, Dialog said.

Revenue from international termination jumped 63 percent to 2.22 billion rupees on account of higher traffic growth.