They say mergers are coming in both India and Sri Lanka. I’d prefer clear guidelines rather than discretion, for reasons like this.
A rash of consumer-friendliness has broken out across the mobile data industry. Over the last year, the four major carriers — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile — have cut prices and offered greater flexibility in how they sell their voice, text and broadband services. The industry could be on the verge of an all-out price war.
Who is responsible for this blessed state of affairs?
Credit must go to the United States government.
In 2011, officials at the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department moved to block AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile. That kept the struggling, fourth-place carrier alive as an independent firm. And it led John J. Legere, T-Mobile’s flamboyant, foul-mouthed chief executive, to brand his company the “uncarrier,” and inaugurate a string of measures that have turned every accepted practice in the mobile business on its head.
2 Comments
Ibrahim Ahmad
Dear Rohan – hope you remember me, Ibrahim Ahmad, Group Editor, Voice&Data. Hope you are doing fine ?
Voice&Data is doing its annual conference and awards on 12 March at The Oberoi, New Delhi where some of the key speakers include Sam Pitroda, MF Farooqui (Secy, DoT), Marten Pieters (Vodafone); RK Upadhyay (BSNL); Sanjay Kapoor (ex Airtel); Himanshu Kapania (Idea); Gurdeep Singh (RCom); Dmitry Shukov (MTS); Arvind Bali (Videocon); Jagbir Singh, (Airtel); Sumit Chowdhury (Reliance Jio); NK Gupta (BSNL); Sameer Dave (Aircel); Ashish Pachory (Tata Tele);
Ashwani Khillan (MTS); Hariom Rai (Lava); Manoranjan Mohapatra (Mahindra Comviva); Sanjay Sharma (Amdocs). More details at http://www.tlfindia.in
I would be very happy to invite you for this and also explore some role, if you are interested.
Let me know. Regds, Ibrahim
Rohan Samarajiva
Dear Ibrahim,
Yes, I do recall.
I will be in Delhi area 6-15 March. Participating in ICRIER event on 7th and so on. But 12th is bad. We have an invitation-only small event at the Meridien, featuring Professor Martin Cave and several others. Presenting some case studies of relevance to the Bharat Broadband initiative. I have to be there the whole day.
Pity that we’re overlapping with you. Would have been better for both if we had prior coordination.
So, sorry. Another time.
–Rohan
Nepal’s Bhotekoshi Disaster: Every Link Existed, Nothing Joined Them
On 26 August 2026, every component of Nepal's emergency communication system existed, including seismic monitoring, river gauges, a forecasting agency, a national SMS service, two mobile networks, volunteer mappers and a command post. What failed were the connections between them.
RECON-SL: A Sri Lanka Household Electricity Dataset for ML & AI Research
RECON-SL is an open dataset developed by LIRNEasia with funding support from the Lacuna Fund and in partnership with LECO. It combines electricity consumption records, smart meter readings, and household survey data from over 4,000 Sri Lankan homes to support energy policymaking, social research, and machine learning.
LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager Gayani Hurulle at the Internet Governance Forum Sri Lanka 2026
The Internet Governance Forum Sri Lanka (IGF Sri Lanka) 2026 was held on 23 September under the theme ‘Empowering the Internet in the Age of Intelligence through Multistakeholderism’. The event brought together stakeholders from government, industry, academia, civil society and the technical community to discuss key issues in internet governance.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
9A 1/1, Balcombe Place
Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2026 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific