A recent LIRNEasia media outreach effort timed to coincide with the upcoming SAARC Summit in Colombo has been picked up by AFP.

Leaving aside the question of the operators in the SAARC countries collectively lowering their termination rates to make possible more reasonable intra-SAARC call charges, the data also show that Pakistan has the overall lowest international telecom prices and Nepal has the highest. Hopefully, some of these prices will come down, now that the comparisons have been made!

South Asian leaders urged to slash telco tariffs – LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE

Calls were cheapest in Pakistan, where fixed and mobile phone users pay three US cents a minute to call many non-SAARC destinations, including the United States and Hong Kong.

But users pay 12 US cents to call Bangladesh and India.

The full article is here.

Pakistan’s leading English daily, The Dawn carried an abbreviated version.