Tue, 09 February 2010  22:02:11
Cheaper Calls
26 Nov, 2009 21:49:52
Sri Lanka telco regulator meet pushes lower regional tarrifs
Nov 26, 2009 (LBO) - South Asian telecommunications regulators have decided to ask phone companies in the region to reduce international call charges, an official said.
Priyantha Kariyapperuma, Director General of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Sri Lanka, said the move, at a Colombo meeting of regional regulators, is intended to make overseas calls cheaper.

All regulators agreed on the need to make IDD (international direct dial) calls more affordable to improve connectivity of people in the region, he told a news conference at the end of the two-day meeting.

"All the regional regulators agreed to talk to their respective operators and come up with a figure (call tariff)," he said.

"All agree we need an affordable IDD tariff as a matter of principle. All agreed we need to reduce the IDD rates in the region."

Kariyapperuma said a committee of officials representing regulators of the region was appointed to establish a new tariff regime as early as possible.

The proposal was mooted at a summit of south Asian leaders in Colombo under the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation.

Studies have found that it is cheaper for people in the region to make calls to destinations as far as the US than within the south Asian region.

Kariyapperuma said the meeting of telecommunications regulators in Colombo was aimed at arriving at common standards and regulations for the region, home to almost two billion people, with fast-growing mobile phone usage.

There were now nearly 600 million handsets being used in the south Asian region.

Kariyapperuma said the effort to better connect countries of the south Asian region required political will.

"Political will be needed for better cross-border communications in this region. We will convince the politicians of the need for better connectivity."

The aim in reducing call charges was to have arrangements in place where people making cross-border calls will not feel the difference in origin or destination.

The Colombo meeting also discussed issues like cyber security and spectrum management.

"There can be cyber attacks," Kariyapperuma said. "There could even be cross-border new ways of terrorism. "In this region terrorism is not a new thing - we just went through a very bad period," he said referring to Sri Lanka's 30-year ethnic war which ended in May when government forces crushed the Tamil Tigers.

"There can be attacks through cyber space - that's why this issue was taken up."

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