With over 200 attendees from around the country present throughout the day, the Sri Lanka Telecom Summit held this week in Colombo provided a great showcase of the country’s dynamic telecommunications market. Held on the 4th of March this year, the event was a meeting place for market leaders and innovators from the whole telecommunications sector: established and alternative operators from the fixed, mobile and wireless sides, network infrastructure vendors, telecoms solutions providers from across the country, investors, consultants and more.

The 2010 Sri Lanka Telecom Summit concluded on a high note with a view to poise Lanka’s telecom industry to be the next biggest growth engine in the SAARC Region. “The event was a landmark in the telecoms calendar,” says Michael Abayasinghe, CEO of Runeware Integrated, managers of the event; “throughout the day, the market’s most dynamic companies across the telecoms ecosystem were here to network, to share ideas and to showcase their solutions and services for one of the fastest growing telecommunication industries in South Asia. With a 35% mobile penetration, a growth rate of approximately 2 million mobile users per annum and Telecom Operators achieving over 50% growth year on year, Sri Lanka has one of the most liberalized telecommunication industries in the region, and we will continue to take many more significant initiatives such as this to boost the telecom industry in the country.”

The summit provided opportunities for participants to learn about the latest technologies and new products, while the high-level conference brought together CEOs and senior executives of the leading

companies to share their expertise and strategies for their markets: operators such as Dialog Telekom, Hutchison, Etisalat, Airtel and Lanka Bell and solutions providers from national infrastructure vendors.

The major theme of the day was “The Telecom Revolution in Sri Lanka and the Vision for Fast Track Growth”, whilst the second theme was based on The Challenging Telecom Landscape – “Successful & Innovative Technologies to Increase Telecom Penetration”. The third saw the discussion on “Emerging Business Models to Achieve Success from Revenue Maximization Strategies for the Sri Lanka Telco’s” where the operators highlighted the need for a focus on customer experience and enhanced customer relationship management, and the great opportunities available for increasing ARPUs based on the high proportion of young people in the country and the very low broadband penetration rates.

Organised by Bharat Exhibitions – India’s leader in Telecom & IT Events, and managed by Runeware Integrated - an integrated marketing service agency which specializes in technology events, the Sri Lanka Telecom Summit came to a close with a Gala Dinner on Thursday night, where it saw a select group of sponsors in attendance, including TCIL as Diamond Partner, VERINT as Gold Partner and Shaildhar Telecom Services as the conference partner. Mr. Shashi Dharan- Managing Director of Bharat Exhibitions said that “The ICT industry in Sri Lanka is one the fastest growing and has the potential to emerge as one of the leading revenue generators for the country. The Telecom sector in Sri Lanka has taken pride in being the prime figure to introduce some of the most latest global telecommunication technologies in the South Asian region such as GSM, 3G, 3.5G and HSPA (High Speed Packet Access). Sri Lanka is also the first country to introduce Next Generation Networks such as 3G, which enables the use of WiMax and LTE. This exclusive telecom summit helped in strategizing a strong vision for new communication technologies as it set an ideal stage for interaction between the key influencers and decision makers, all under one roof.”

The program was further endorsed by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), together with the Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), Indian Cellular Association (ICA), Internet Service Provider Association of India (ISPAI), CDMA Development Group (CDG), ITU-APT Foundation of India, WiMAX Forum and the Telecom User Group of India - TUGI. The event was presented by UT STARCOM.