Sri Lanka’s largest mobile operator, Dialog Mobile, used this year’s GSMA Mobile Asia Congress to announce the launch of a new 3G-based gaming service. Developed by fellow Sri Lankan firm, WaveNET, ‘3G PLAY’ – which was also officially launched at the show yesterday – will allow Dialog to offer customers single and multi-player gaming via video calls on 3G-enabled handsets. The application allows subscribers to challenge other players by making an in-bound video call to the system. The service will launch with three games, including 3G versions of ‘Tic Tac Toe’ and poker. WaveNET said a further three games were in development.

Speaking to GSMA Mobile Asia Congress Show Daily at 3G PLAY’s official launch event yesterday, Supun Weerasinghe, chief operating officer at Dialog Mobile, described the service as a “significant milestone” for Dialog’s fledgling 3G network. First launched in August 2006, Weerasinghe said that Dialog’s 3G network now covers around 30 percent of the population with mobile broadband its most popular 3G application to date. However, he added that 3G users only account for 4 percent of its total customer base. According to Wireless Intelligence data, Dialog had around 9.3 million subscribers by the end of Q2 this year. Pricing for the new service was not yet confirmed though Weerasinghe suggested that connection to the service would likely cost around US$0.01 per minute. WaveNET CEO, Suren Pinto, added that he was looking to offer 3G PLAY to other operators in the region, most noticeably India.