Mobitel Upahara Vs Dialog Blaster

Revolutionary postpaid package "Upahara" is selling like hot cakes these days and
could be the most successful post paid package ever in Sri Lankan mobile market. In
the meantime Blaster from Dialog has become a good opponent for Upahara. But it
seems due to the nature of the advertising by both companies it has become a real
mess selecting a suitable package. There fore thought of doing a comparison between
Upahara and Blaster.

Free Minutes

Free Minutes
Applicable to

Mobitel Upahara
1000
Mobitel, SLT, Suntel
LankaBell, Dialog CDMA

Dialog Blaster
1000
Only Dialog GSM

After 1000 to
:
Mobitel/Dialog

0.50

After 1000 to
Other fixed

0.50

After 1000 to
Other Mobile

Incoming

Free

Free

Monthly Rental

240

300

Connection
Fee

1500

1500

One disadvantage of Upahara is it only available for state sector workers and
pensioners. But Upahara is much more cheaper than Dialog when we consider the call
charges and average amount that we will be spending monthly. Upahara subscribers
have the full freedom of talking an Mobitel, SLT, Dialog CDMA, Suntel, Lankabell
number absolutely free of charge where Dialog users have to pay Rs 3 per every
minute. However Upahara charges Rs 0.50 between 6.00 pm and 12.00 pm which could
be another drawback.
However there are reports that Mobitel is also going to unveil a package for all Sri
Lankans and it would be much better than everything on market hopefully.
Telcos see declining profitability
By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera
Once considered as the best performing industry in Sri Lanka, the telecommunication industry in recent years has
seen almost all the players making losses mainly due to unhealthy competition, and prices which cannot sustain the
businesses, according to industry analysts.
In the second quarter of this year (Q2 2009), only Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) reported profits and that too with a
drastic reduction (57% reduction) in profits. Dialog, Mobitel, Tigo and Hutch all posted losses and Airtel too is in the
red. The industry is in crisis (with eight out of nine companies posting losses in Q2 2009) and could result in slowing
down of the telecom industry, a telecom industry analyst noted.
In results released on Thursday, Dialog reported a profit for the third quarter of this year.
Presently the industry is operating at prices which it cannot sustain. In most cases the telcos are operating at costs
which are higher than its revenues. (Effective rate per minute charged by companies are lower than its total
operating costs). Unhealthy competition and very low prices have pushed leading mobile companies to opt into
giving as many as 1,000 outgoing minutes free at a minimal subscription (within its network or even to other
networks) and all incoming minutes free at no revenues, although all these minutes have an operating costs, the
analyst noted, adding that Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) is also partly to blame.
It is mainly due to their haphazard regulation, the analyst noted, adding that the price war worsened in August
2008 when Mobitel launched the Upahara plan with 1,000 outgoing minutes per month free and total incoming free
for a mere subscription of Rs. 240/- per month.
This saw Dialog introduce the Blaster package again with 1,000 (within network) outgoing minutes free and total
incoming free for also a mere subscription of Rs. 300 per month. To add to the problem Airtel launched outgoing at
Rs. 2 and Rs. 0.49 (Airtel to Airtel with a monthly fee of Rs. 49) in January 2009. Mobitel followed this Rs. 2.50 per
minute prices in March 2009 and with a telescopic pricing which offers prices as low as Rs. 2, he explained, adding
that Dialog dropped its prices in July 2009 to be on par with the telescopic prices of Mobitel.
Tigo and Hutch had to follow the same in August 2009. Airtel offer 3 times of the reload value as free airtime in
September 2009. TRC should have taken a stance against the price war at the outset, he said. He said while the
price war is at its peak with mobile telcos, fixed line operators are also in this quandary. They are feeling the pinch
too as the mobile price cuts invariably affect fixed line pricing as well, he said.
TRC Director General Priyantha Kariyapperuma told the Sunday Times FT that the regulator always discouraged
price cuts. The TRC constantly advised all operators not to declare a price war and thereby narrow down on their
profitability, because they may not have the financial capacity to invest in Next Generation (NGN) infrastructure
which is the future of telcos, he said. He said that profitability decline is due to the operators infighting and not due

to regulatory decisions.
The analyst said that if this trend in decreasing pricing and increase in costs continues without immediate correction,
the telcos survival of the companies would be questionable in the short term to medium term. Lanka Bells
Managing Director, Prasad Samarasinghe said that the price competition from the industry point of view is
unhealthy.
It is therefore vital that all operators realize this sooner rather then later and avoid using price as the only platform
to compete in the market, he said, adding that the fact that all operators have started to compete on price has
resulted in the very survival of the industry coming into question.

The tariff structure applicable for UPAHARA will be as follows.

Sri Lanka Mobitel boosts users with state workers

Sept 18, 2008 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Mobitel, a unit of fixed access operator Sri Lanka Telecom says its
customers would increase by 300,000 to 2.4 million by year-end with a package aimed at state-workers
selling rapidly.

Mobitel chief executive Suren Amarasekera says the firm is issuing over 10,000 connections a day following
the launch of a new Upahara branded package targeted at the island's civil service.
Sri Lanka has more than 1.1 million state workers, which officials have aid could be the largest civil service
per population in the world.
Amarasekera says the strong demand is using up network capacity quickly and has contracted has been
awarded to China's Huawei to expand capacity with base stations rising to 2000 from the current number of
around 1,500.
The expansion will increase capacity in the network by 650,000 to 2.75 million subscribers, and coverage to
90 percent of the population, he says.
But with rapid acquisition of new subscribers the celco will request international proposals from vendors to

build yet more capacity at the end of this month.