Speed

Apr 13, 2013 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Dialog Axiata, a unit of Malaysia's Axiata group said its mobile broadband subscribers grew 44 percent to 455,000 in 2012. The group has a mobile subscriber base of 7.7 million. Last month the company launched fourth general mobile broadband with FD-LTE technology, which it said was the first such service in South Asia.

Its fixed arm has also launched fourth generation mobile services using TD-LTE technology.

Dialog said its pay TV subscriber base grew 23 percent to 264,000.

In 2012 the group had invested 17.1 billion rupees in expanding its optical fibre network, high speed fixed and mobile infrastructure, group chief executive Hans Wijayasuriya said.

"The Group’s strategy with respect to Capital Investment continued to be calibrated to ongoing and future returns while being closely aligned to the forward looking growth strategies of our multiple businesses," he told shareholders in the annual report.

He said in 2012 the group contributed 5.68 billion rupees to the state through taxes and fees, and also collected and paid 8.62 billion rupees in indirect taxes.

Sri Lanka has a 20 percent tu