Parliamentarian Vasudeva Nanayakkara wants telecom tariffs down. Quoting an unnamed ‘prominent mobile operator’ who placed the operational cost of a phone call at LKR 0.20 (Less than one fifth of a US cent) at a meeting at the Treasury, Mr. Nanayakkara asks why not the telecom firms reduce the mobile phone charges.
LIRNEasia welcomes this move and plans to present the research findings of its own and those of Nokia on the telecom tariff and mobile phone ownership costs at the public hearing.
For example, we can tell Mr. Nanayakkara about Nokia’s find that Sri Lanka has the seventh lowest total cost of (mobile) ownership (TCO) from more than 70 countries surveyed. Sri Lanka’s TCO was more than only those of (in ascending order) Honduras, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Indonesia in 2009. Nokia has estimated the TCO in twelve countries less than USD 5/month while the average for 70+ countries studied was USD 10.88.
Mr. Nanayakkara will also learn when we asked the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ users in Sri Lanka in 2008, about the affordability, only 30% said a mobile-mobile call is either ‘expensive’ or ‘very expensive’ while 60% found it ‘cheap’ or ‘very cheap’. A ’low end’ typically spend USD 2-4 per month on his/her phone bill while the mean of pre-paid mobile expenditure stands at USD 5.85.
Apart from that, we are sure Mr. Nanayakkara is perhaps more concerned about the electricity tariffs, which, unlike telecom tariffs have never been controlled by the competition. A public hearing on electricity tariffs will be of more use given they are still decided by a government owned monopolistic provider. We wait for Mr. Nanayakkara’s letter to the Central Electricity Board requesting for a one.
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