Sri Lanka attracts $150 mn investment from India's Bharti Airtel for mobile network

Sri Lanka's Board of Investment Tuesday said it had given approval for India's largest publicly-listed telecom firm, Bharti Airtel, to be the island's fifth mobile phone operator with an investment of 150 million dollars.

Airtel CEO Narendra Gupta says the firm sees a lot of potential in Sir Lanka's mobile market as the overall penetration rate is still a low 20 percent despite the presence of three fixed line and four mobile operators.

"The initial investment proposal is 150 million dollars and we plan to cover the entire country (with the service)," Gupta said following the signing of the BOI documents.

The firm, having mobile, broadband and telephone and enterprise services, hopes to use infrastructure of the other telecom companies to gain coverage in the country.

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