April 19, 2008 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Electroteks, a communications firm, says it will launch a wireless broadband service in May which will have voice telephony services at half the existing tariffs.

Electroteks chief B A C Abeywardene says the service will use CDMA (code division multiple access) based technology to provide up to 1Mbps speeds and voice calls priced around 1.50 rupees a minute, which is about half the current tariffs.

At the moment however interconnect settlement rates between operators are slightly higher at around 1.90 rupees a unit with taxes, he said.

"But interconnect charges broadly balance out, so we will not have to pay out a lot of money," Abeywardene told LBO.

"Price competition on telecom services is getting tougher and the operator that can run the most cost-efficient network will win in the end."

Electroteks has been a pioneer wireless communications firm which has a range of licenses dating back to 1983. It has also fabricated and sometimes exported communications equipments.

Abeywardene says his company already has a fibre-optic network covering the greater Colombo area. Electroteks mostly serves corporate customers and provides international calling card services.

Electroteks is planning to keep cost down by fabricating its own equipment. Even now it is fabricating hardware such as routers and switches for around a quarter of the price paid by other operators, Abeywardene said.

In the first phase of Eletroteks broadband services it would cover greater Colombo and move to cover a coastal stretch starting from Puttalam to Hambantota, Abeywardene said.

Several Sri Lankan telcos are now offering HSPA (high speed packet access) based services with somewhat higher internet download speeds, and voice calling capability as well as Wi-Max.

ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line) services are now priced at just under 20 dollars a month, but Electroteks says it will give higher download speeds.

"We are still working out the pricing. The main factor is the international bandwidth cost," says Abeywardene.

"We already have satellite capacity, but submarine cable costs are lower."

The island is connected to the SEA-ME-WE cables via Sri Lanka Telecom, and to Flag through Lanka Bell, a wireless fixed access provider.