Stellar Performance

July 27, 2006 (LBO) – Dialog Telekom, Sri Lanka’s largest cellular phone operator, Thursday posted a 47 percent rise in net profits for the nine months to September, as subscriber growth lifted revenues. A unit of Telekom Malaysia, Dialog Telekom, reported a 7.55 billion rupee group net profit, while revenues climbed 47 percent to 18.89 billion rupees, over the same period 2005.

Dialog controls around 60 percent of Sri Lanka’s cellular market, servicing over 2.8 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 42 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 per cent of total sales.

The company’s pre-paid card segment jumped 57 percent to 2.36 million customers, while post-paid segment grew 13 percent to 480,000 subscribers, during the period under review.

Earlier this year, Dialog announced plans for a 150 million dollar expansion plan to boo