In August 2008, LIRNEasia made a big push to eliminate the anomaly of intra-SAARC calls that were more expensive than calls to Singapore, UK, USA and other liberalized markets. This bore fruit in the form of para 6 of the SAARC Summit Declaration:
The Heads of State or Government observed that an effective and economical regional tele-communication regime is an essential factor of connectivity, encouraging the growth of people-centric partnerships. They stressed the need for the Member States to endeavour to move towards a uniformly applicable low tariff, for international direct dial calls within the region.
While the regulators are cogitating. it appears that the operators are acting.
Just last week, Dialog, Sri Lanka’s largest operator dropped the call charge to India to LKR 10/minute. Earlier its lowest charges were LKR 11/minutes. So now, our closest neighbor, India, is also the cheapest to call to. No longer contrary to common sense.
2 Comments
Rohan Samarajiva
Interesting question: how much does Airtel charge to call India?
Absent
Tigo also charges Rs. 10/ per Min (per second Billing. Airtel web site is silent about IDD rates
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