Sri Lankan operator Dialog Telekom, a unit of Telekom Malaysia, has concluded a USD19.2 million deal to acquire 100% of MTT Network, a telecoms backbone operator in Sri Lanka. MTT Network has a 20-year licence, expiring in 2015, to offer leased line, switched and non-switched data communications services. Its portfolio includes an external gateway licence and a CDMA WiLL licence. According to Lanka Business Online, Dialog plans to run MTT Network as a separate entity. Telekom said that the acquisition gives it the opportunity to gain a foothold in Sri Lanka’s lucrative data communications, wholesale and broadband services market. Dialog entered into a share purchase agreement (SPA) for the acquisition of MTT on 14 November 2005.
Dialog Telekom (formerly MTN Networks) is the island’s biggest mobile operator, accounting for over two million subscribers at the end of 2005; it also possesses a ten-year fixed voice telephony licence running until November 2015. The company provides international services via subsidiary Dialog Global, internet services under the Dialog Internet brand name, and owns mobile satellite provider Dialog SAT.