Mobitel mTicketing triumphs at mBillionth Award South Asia 2011

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel emerged triumphant at the mBillionth Award South Asia 2011 hosted by India, winning the mTravel and Tourism category for the mTicketing facility, competing with other contenders in the Telecommunications Industry from the South Asian region.

The criteria for the mTravel and Tourism category comprised of the ICT Service provider being able to utilise the mobile and its complementing applications and embedded services to enrich the information society by aggregating digital content relating to travel and tourism, thus helping to create a knowledge rich information society. Additionally, the Service Provider should be able to offer travel and tourism related information and services like real time travel bookings, location and transport information, including through GPS and GIS.

mBillionth award South Asia 2011 was organised by Digital Empowerment Foundation, India and The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka was a partner of the event, and hosted the grand jury this year.

Mobitel mTicketing was launched in collaboration with Sri Lanka Railways in 2009, unveiling Sri Lanka’s first mobile railway ticket reservation system enabling railway commuters to reserve tickets for intercity travel via a simple mobile phone call. All Mobitel customers can utilise this service through the Mobitel Ticketing portal by dialing 365 from their mobile. The unique mTicketing service is available 365 days of the year with bookings being updated on a real time basis. Further, as tickets can be reserved over the phone, the need for a passenger to make an additional trip to the railway station to reserve tickets in advance is completely eliminated, a convenience that is greatly valued by all. This innovative service has been widely utilised by Mobitel customers and undoubtedly fulfills the criteria required for the mTravel and Tourism Award.

The mBillionth Award South Asia 2011 awards presentation is renowned for ‘Recognising Innovations in Telecom and Mobile Content and Application for Masses’ and is attended by over 200 mobile and telecom companies among other stakeholders. Countries taking part in the mBillionth Award South Asia 2011 are Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Afghanistan and the host nation, India.

Last year, Mobitel mTicketing system won the prestigious, e-Swabhimani 2010 award in the category of e- Business and Commerce which was organised by ICT Agency Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, the National Mobile Service Provider and the Official Sponsor of the National Cricket Team, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom. In January 2004, the company launched its fully-fledged 2.5G GSM network that is EDGE/GPRS enabled and designed to operate on dual band. In December 2007, the company launched its 3.5G HSPA network - the first Super 3.5G network in South Asia. Further, Mobitel successfully demonstrated HSPA + MIMO technology with down link speed up to 28.8 Mbps and carried out successful trial of 4G/LTE technology with downlink speed exceeding 96 Mbps, for the first time in the South Asian Region. Investments committed to date in the 2.5G/3.5G/4G networks and service offering amounts to over US$400 mn.