Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka (/sriːˈlɑːŋkə, -ˈlæŋkə/ or ⁱ/ʃriː-/;Sinhalese - ශ්‍රී ලංකාව, Tamil Ilaṅkai), officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon (/sᵻˈlɒnˌ seɪ-ˌ siː-/), is an island country in South Asia near south-east India.

Sri Lanka has maritime borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest. Its documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of pre-historic human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Its geographic location and deep harbours made it of great strategic importance from the time of the ancient Silk Road through to World War II.

A diverse and multicultural country, Sri Lanka is home to many religions, ethnic groups, and languages. In addition to the majority Sinhalese, it is home to large groups of Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, Moors, Burghers, Malays, Kaffirs and the aboriginal Vedda. Sri Lanka has a rich Buddhist heritage, and the first known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, the Pāli Canon, dates back to the Fourth Buddhist council in 29 BC. The country's recent history has been marred by a thirty-year civil war which decisively ended when Sri Lankan military defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009.

Etisalat (Sri Lanka)

Etisalat Lanka (English: Communication), known as Celltel until 2007, and Tigo between 2007 and 2010, is a mobile telecommunications network in Sri Lanka. It is currently owned by the UAE based telecommunications operator Etisalat. Etisalat Sri Lanka had over 4.2 million customers at the end of February 2012. The company announced the commercial launch of Dual Carrier HSPA+ services on 15 August 2012, becoming the first operator in South Asia to do so.

Celltel and Tigo

Etisalat was founded as Celltel on 18 June 1989 on a Motorola TACS system, becoming the first cellular network in Sri Lanka. It was then rebranded by Millicom International in January 2007, as Tigo (Sri Lanka).

Acquisition by Etisalat

Etisalat acquired Sri Lankan operations of Millicom International, Tigo (Sri Lanka) on 16 October 2009. The acquisition was completed with a total enterprise value of 207 Million US$, out of which 155 Million US$ was in cash. Etisalat changed the Operator/Brand Name Tigo to Etisalat On 25 February 2010.