“The Telecom Regulatory Commission is conducting its own investigations on mobile broadband speeds advertized by operators,” Priyantha Kariyapperuma, director general of the TRC said.

“If any mobile operator is found guilty of providing slower speeds than advertized, the TRC will take action against them. Our report will be out in about two to three weeks.”

A study on broadband speeds in South Asian countries conducted by the regional think-tank LIRNEasia showed Sri Lankan surfers were getting less speed than claimed by telecom companies.

I hope that the TRC will become more reasonable after a few weeks pass by and the grumpiness wears off. Otherwise we will have to ask someone to investigate why the TRC was inactive all these years while consumers were complaining, bloggers were ranting and peer regulatory agencies taking action.

In the meantime, we invite the TRC to use the rich information accumulated in our website since 2006 May (3.5 years ago) when we ran the first post on the subject. Prior to that Mr Sanath Siriwardene, who communicated with us through the blog had made extensive presentations to the TRC in writing and in person and had even published some articles in the media. I am sure Mr Siriwardene will also be happy to share his expertise. In particular, we invite the TRC to look at our benchmark data where we show that both Bangladesh and Bhutan now have lower leased-line prices than Sri Lanka. When competition forces retail prices down while input costs remain high, quality is bound to suffer.

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.

Full report on LBO.

We started this process in the weeks before the 2008 SAARC Summit. When the issue was mentioned in the SAARC Chair’s speech and included in the Declaration, we were, naturally, pleased. I recall telling a journalist that at most it would take a few months to get this implemented.

We raised the issue with the then Chair of the South Asian Telecom Regulator’s Council, Mr Nripendra Misra of India. I went to Delhi to brief him and hand over the relevant benchmark data. That was last October. More than a few months since the SAARC Summit.

The only progress we have seen has come from the private operators. Both Lanka Bell and Dialog have lowered prices to call India; no longer can we say that it costs less to call non-SAARC countries than SAARC, at least with respect to Sri Lanka.

This is one area where concerted action is necessary by all the SAARC members. Lower the termination rates to an agreed level, if necessary with an annual step down. Then no one can say that one country’s operators are benefiting vis-à-vis another’s.

A regional Regulators’ Conference scheduled to be held in Colombo next week is expected to seek consensus from all members on a single International Direct Dialing (IDD) rate for the region. Sri Lankan Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRC) Director General Priyantha Kariyapperuma told the Sunday Times FT that this will be discussed at the annual 11th South Asian Telecommunications Regulators Council (SATRC – 11) on November 24-26 in Colombo .

“The SATRC-11 will address the key policy and regulatory issues in the SAARC countries. Once you have regional collaboration you have trans-border communication facilities without any restrictions,” he noted.

Full report.

The incident that triggered this move was the suicide of a fourteen year old girl of a leading school in Colombo, whose mobile phone, with personal information, has been confiscated by the prefects. We are bit confused why no ban on school ties – what the girl used to hang herself in the wash room. Please note: No international conspiracies to tarnish the image of the country have not been indicated so far.

In a letter dated October 10, 2008 to TRC Director General Priyantha Kariyapperuma – copied to The Sunday Times – Mr. Nanayakkara states that ‘OPA’s experts in their presentation to the TRC, around March 2008, explained and established that the TRC’s tariff proposal recommended to the SC is flawed mathematically and technically and that it is in violation of the provisions in the Sri Lanka.

In particular, Mr. Nanayakkara writes that the TRC did not put up to the SC that the per-line operating costs of the SLT since its privatization in 1998 has been declining at around 15% per annum. The TRC also provided disinformation to the SC, to conceal the urgent need arising from above, to update the outdated X factor of price cap CPI – X. The X factor is not a one-time set value. Its regular revision is an essential requirement that underpins its core aim which is to sustain market competitiveness in the fact of advancing technology and declining costs, the letter said.

Further, Mr. Nanayakkara said the TRC also did not inform the SC of the abrupt suspension of this license condition in 1997, on the unjust insistence of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), at the time it entered into a joint agreement with SLT, which stalled reduction of tariffs. The TRC also did inform the SC that it failed to revise X in 2002 when the suspension was terminated in 2002 and the Government took measures to revamp the market competitiveness.

Read the full report in ‘Sunday Times’ here.

Imposed few weeks back, they specify CDMA phones can be used only at the address it is issued to. (CDMA technology is used in Sri Lanka for fixed wireless and not mobile)

How on earth a CDMA phone can be restricted to one address, asks Udurawana, when you sometimes even have to climb to your neighbour’s wall to receive signals.

We hope the Sri Lanka rural users who have faced similar problems would readily empathise. (We hear once the mother-in-law of a former Director General of TRC too had to take her phone to a particular spot at a paddy field to catch signals)

Mr. Priyantha Kariyapperuma may want to respond to Udurawana. Thanks in advance for CCing LIRNEasia.