India's largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel on Monday (12^th January) launched its mobile services in Sri Lanka under 'Airtel' brand and announced a total investment of $200 million till 2012 in the neighbouring country.

 

Of this, the company has already invested $100 million to commission a sizeable network in just over a year, and the rest would be invested in the next three years, the company said.

 

The services were launched on a third generation network through its subsidiary Bharti Airtel Lanka. The company said it signed a three-year managed network deal with Huawei and has partnered with IBM to manage its IT, infrastructure and application requirements in Sri Lanka.

 

Bharti Airtel would be offering both 2G and next generation 3G mobile services along with a host of value added services to the customers. The company said the subscribers would be offered simple tariff plans and they would be liberated from the concept of peak and off-peak call rates by offering standard tariffs throughout the day and night.

 

Bharti Airtel is one of Asia's leading integrated telecom service providers, offering all types of communication services be it mobile basic, long distance, DTH, internet and undersea cable among others. Sri Lanka is Bharti's third global venture after Seychelles, Jersey and Guernsey.