New mobile telephone service provider plans to launch its services from September

Bharti Airtel Lanka, a subsidiary of India's Bharti Airtel, said it had pushed back the launch of its mobile service in Sri Lanka to September this year from an original target of March.

The firm day before yesterday signed a deal with the investment promotion agency, Board of Investment, to spend half its planned 200 Million Dollar investment in the island to set up a network of transmission towers.

Investment promotion minister Sarath Amunugama said Bharti had faced difficulties in getting approvals for its towers from local authorities and sharing towers with other operators.