Sri Lanka’s telecommunication industry is reviewing its directives on two important rates which were imposed on the industry players this year, officials said.
Anusha Pelpita, Director General Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) told the Business Times that the Interconnection Rate (which is the fee charged by the caller receiving party from a call originating party; E.g.; from Dialog to Mobitel) and the minimum outgoing call rates will be revisited by the end of this year.
The Commission in May directed a charge of 50 cents per call and 15 cents IC for Short Message Services (SMS) to be implemented by June 1 on five mobile operators - Dialog, Mobitel, Airtel, Hutch and Etisalat and also four fixed lines – Sri Lanka Telecom, Suntel, Lanka Bell and Dialog Broadband while from Thursday onwards the minimum outgoing call rate was implemented at Rs 2.
Interconnection is specified to ensure fair compensation for the use of the receiving party network infrastructure by the network originating the call. The rate applies in both directions and hence represents parity and fair bilateral compensation.
“We will look into the performance of the industry (in terms of profitability) and decide whether to increase or reduce these rates,” he added. He said that TRC is setting the pace for the players to contribute 1% to the Gross Domestic product (GDP) by next year. “Last year this sector lost Rs. 15 billion due to the unhealthy competition, but next year, we want to change this. This year we’re working on it,” he said. |
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