Dialog welcomes number portability; intl. best practice in customer choice

Dialog Axiata PLC yesterday welcomed the re-initiation by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka of a roadmap to reach international best practice in maximising customer choice including number portability. 

The company was responding to the announcement by the TRCSL with respect to the implementation of number portability (NP).

Dialog said number portability which enables switching of mobile and fixed line numbers across competing service providers is a customer facility widely practiced internationally and is a key facet of a liberalised telecommunications market. 

Dialog first proposed in July 2008 the initiation of a roadmap to alleviate consumer choice bottlenecks including number portability. The company believed then and has continued to champion over the years the paradigm that maximising consumer choice would result in the enhancement and development of the industry overall resulting in benefits to all service providers and their customers.

“Dialog is honoured by the trust placed in the brand and its services by over 15 million Sri Lankan consumers. The success and growth of the company would not have been possible if not for our customers exercising their choice. 

“Open competition and customer choice is at the root of our success and is a paradigm we deeply respect. Advanced technologies enable not only a suite of advanced facilities but also the freedom of consumers to choose the best,” Dialog Axiata Director/Group Chief Executive Supun Weerasinghe said. 

While Sri Lanka’s telecommunications market has been recognised globally for the affordability and quality of services as well as the state-of-the-art in technology and advanced facilities, enablement of the portability of mobile and fixed numbers across networks has not been implemented to-date. 

“We are very happy to see the TRCSL moving forward with the next steps in the liberalisation of our industry and we congratulate the TRCSL for initiating the process of implementing number portability in Sri Lanka. Dialog is also optimistic that the TRCSL will move forward swiftly with other similar enablers of consumer choice,” Weerasinghe added.

Dialog and its principal shareholder Axiata Group Bhd also hold the distinction of being Sri Lanka’s largest FDI with a total investment to date of $ 2.7 billion directed at Telecommunications Infrastructure Development in Sri Lanka.  

Dialog entered Sri Lanka’s Telecommunications market as the fourth entrant in the mobile sector. Sri Lankan consumers elevated Dialog to the pinnacle of the Mobile market in 2000 and since then the company has grown to become Sri Lanka’s largest Converged Connectivity provider spanning Mobile, Fixed, High Speed Broadband and Television service. 

The company has been voted by Sri Lankan consumers as the number one Telecommunications and Internet Service Provider for nine years in succession at the SLIM-Nielsen People’s Choice Awards.