How it started
MTN Networks (Pvt) Ltd (1993–2005)
Dialog was incorporated in 1993 as MTN Networks (Private) Limited with 90% of equity through Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) and 10% by Capital Maharaja being the local promoters to the investment. Telekom Malaysia (TM) is the Majority owned by the Government of Malaysia, and is the incumbent and dominant fixed-line telecom operator in Malaysia. At the time of setup, MTN was the 4th entry to the Sri Lankan Mobile market which already had 3 established operators.
In 1995 just after 2 years of incorporation, MTN Networks began its commercial operations under the brand name Dialog GSM by rolling out the first digital network in South Asia using GSM technology hence offering a superior service compared to analog networks at the time.
In 1996, the local promoters divested their stake providing complete ownership of MTN Networks to Telekom Malaysia. In mid-1997 Hans Wijayasuriya was appointed as the CEO of MTN Networks, at the age of 29 becoming the youngest CEO in a multimillion-dollar investment.
Marking another regional first Dialog GSM was the first operator in Asia Pacific to deliver international roaming in 1997.
MTN Networks was able to record its first operational profit for the financial year of 1998 when Dialog GSM had a subscriber base close to 75,000. Beginning of the new millennium brought fortunes for Dialog as in the year 2000 it was able to attain the market leader position in the mobile market surpassing the incumbent operators.
From Wikipedia’s article on Dialog, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2