Dhiraagu, the incumbent telecom operator of the Maldives had its license renewed for a term of 15 years. Since its establishment in 1988, Dhiraagu enjoyed an exclusivity on the provision of fixed line services. It was also the only company allowed to carry international traffic into the island nation and terminate on any network. We are happy to note that the Telecom Authority of Maldives (TAM) has not extended these exclusivities in the new license that will be effective from January 2009. The move should, at a minimum, have an impact on international incoming call prices to the Maldives, since Dhiraagu’s competitor Wataniya will now be able to carry inward bound traffic and terminate on any network.
The 2006-08 focus of LIRNEasia’s research was indicators of sector and regulatory performance. Indicators should not be collected for the sake of collecting them. They should be collected based on a common standards and reported at standard intervals in a timely manner, so that regulation and policy can be improved. For example, we believe that good price information can allow a simplification of the tariff regulation process in a way that will make all stakeholders, including incumbents, happy. We were thus gratified when the Chief Executive of the Telecom Authority of Maldives invited us to conduct a workhop on indicators and benchmarking.