Someone called me to say that the President of Sri Lanka had spoken about lowering telecom tariffs within the SAARC region. So searched the web. Got no reference to that statement, but got this instead.
Editorial | Online edition of Daily News – Lakehouse Newspapers
Both countries should also contemplate providing cheaper telephone calls for their citizens between the two countries.
We are not aware of the exact technical details but the authorities should
consider the possibility of laying a dedicated submarine telecom cable
along with the proposed power line. That will help reduce costs as well.
Its rude to call people stupid, but if this editorial does not qualify, few things will.
The editorial writer admits that he/she is not aware of the technical details. But was it too much to ask for a simple Internet search to be conducted before wasting newsprint? There has been recent substantive discussion on how call prices can be lowered in the region.
Maybe the esteemed editorial writer does not have access to the Internet; or does not know about google. But surely, he/she can check his/her own morgue on whether a submarine cable between India and Sri Lanka (that he/she is advocating) already exists. He/she will find that his own publication has reported that there are not one but three cables connecting Sri Lanka to India, SEA-ME-WE connecting Sri Lanka in India and points beyond, one connecting Sri Lanka Telecom to BSNL and one connecting Lanka Bell to Reliance. If building cables will bring down prices, we should have seen them by now.
But then I forget, checking the morgue before writing an editorial is the kind of thing one expects from a newspaper. The government-owned Daily News is an advertising and obituary sheet, not a newspaper. My mistake.
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