Tag Archives: fixed operators

In a fullpage advertisement that will be published in the Sunday papers on October 5th, Tigo, Sri Lanka’s “third” mobile operator (not that we place that much stock in market share calculations based on numbers of active SIMs), will effectively end the unloved receiving-party-pays regime in Sri Lanka. Its tariff scheme is about the simplest I have seen in a long time: all incoming calls free; offnet outgoing 10 LKR cents a second (roughly USD 0.001); onnet outgoing 5 LKR cents a second (roughly USD 0.0005). No time periods.

This is a case of the market responding to what the customer wants in the face of regulatory failure, or a work around of the type we discuss in our book. From 1999, the Telecom Regulatory Commission has been considering a shift to Calling Party Pays, but has balked for various reasons. In 2004, the decision was taken and a news conference was announced. Just hours before the news conference, the politically appointed Secretary to the Ministry/Chairman of the TRC, unilaterally and possibly illegally overrode the Commission decision, saying he cannot be responsible for allowing this decision to go through just before the election. ..read more