SLT achieves enhanced profit

Lakmini Rodrigo

COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) net profit recorded an increase of 42 per cent in the first quarter of this year in comparison to the corresponding period of last year, Chairman Anil Obeyesekere PC told the Daily News.

Observing that the net profit was Rs.1.3 billion for the first quarter of 2006 ending on March 31, Obeyesekere said it was a massive improvement from last year's first quarter profit which was only Rs.9.9 million. He added that the increase was mainly attributed to the SLT CDMA phones introduced in November last year.

The SLT CDMA phones were mainly provided to rural areas like Anuradhapura, Hambantota and Polonnaruwa in pursuit of the Mahinda Chinthanaya to enhance the quality of life in villages, he said.

He said that SLT mainly focused on providing telephones to the less privileged in rural villages following the President's vision to provide high facilities enjoyed by city dwellers to villagers as well.

The Chairman pointed out that the number of CDMA phones supplied by SLT within this year was 85,000 and that with the growing demand for SLT phones, his target was to achieve a customer base of 250,000 for SLT CDMA phones within the next three months.

"Even with a slightly higher price in comparison with other private CDMA phones, SLT phones has had a very high demand due to its high technology, clarity and good customer care services," he said. The other reason for the enhanced profit was that every item of revenue such as international communication has increased vastly during this year, Obeyesekere added.

"This has been an excellent year for SLT. We hope we will be able to gain a massive profit at the end of the year," he said.