Airtel hopes to enter Sri Lankan telecom market this year

NEW DELHI: Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Thursday said the company hopes to start operations in Sri Lanka within this calendar year, despite the delay in getting interconnection from the local operators there.

"Discussions are going on with the Sri Lankan telecom regulator and the existing operators there relating to the interconnection issue. It should be sorted out shortly," company's CEO Manoj Kohli told reporters here.

"We should be in a position to start our operations there before 2008. It is as per our schedule," he said.

Earlier a Senior Executive of Bharti Airtel, Sanjay Kapoor said the incumbent operators in Lanka are not giving interconnections to the company, which is anticompetitive in nature.

Responding to that four Sri Lankan operators had issued a joint statement yesterday terming Bharti's allegations as false.

The four operators -- Dialog, Hutch, Mobitel and Tigo lashed out at Bharti Airtel on being accused that they are preventing the company's entry into the island by not providing interconnection on the same terms.