SATRC: The Road to SubRegional Development in Telecom Regulation

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SATRC The Road to Sub-Regional Development in
Telecom Regulation
ByR.B.KumarapathiranaDirector Project
DevelopmentAsia Pacific Telecommunity
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SATRC Brief History
To achieve a Harmonized Telecommunications
Regulatory Environment for the South Asian Region
Is a directive of the ITU Regulatory Forum for
South AsiaPrevious SATRC meetings Sri Lanka,
India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal


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SATRC Brief History (Contd)
Sixth SATRC Meeting, Pakistan (Sept.,
2004)Fifth SATRC Meeting, Nepal (Sept.,
2003)Fourth SATRC Meeting, Bangladesh (Dec.,
2002)Third SATRC Meeting, Bhutan (Mar.,
2001)Second SATRC Meeting, India (Apr.,
1999)First SATRC Meeting, Sri Lanka (May.,
1998)


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SATRC Membership

• All Telecom Regulators from SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran,
Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
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SATRC Member Countries
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Trends in Telecommunications (ECONOMIC)


Economic Recovery Uncertainity
Unpredictability of high-tech sectorDe-centrali
zation, de-regulation and liberalizationMarket
growth for Mobile Telephony and New
ServiceIndustry Transformation Monopoly to
Competition
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Trends in Telecommunications (TECHNOLOGY)
Need for IP enabled technologies services
Decrease in costs increase in processor
speedIncrease in bandwidth availabilityCircuit
Swithing to Packet SwithcingGrowth in digital
and cellular technologies


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SATRC Primary Mandates
Discussions Coordination of regulatory issues
in Telecommunications having common interest
among members Discussions on Radio Frequency,
Standardization, Regulation, Policies and
Strategies for Telecommunications
developmentIdentify and promote areas of
potential cooperation and harmonization through
sub-regional seminars, trainings and workshops


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SATRC Secondary Mandates
Establishing co-operative relationship with
regulators, international, regional or sub
regional organizations.Setting up of Working
Groups when necessary to study and discuss on
specific issues in telecommunications.Revision
of the Terms of Reference (TOR) by consensus.

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Previous SATRC Activities on Numbering

• Major modifications were ruled out
• Agreed codes were proposed for harmonization to
  the countries who have not yet implemented such
  services
• Resolution SATRC 5-1 was adopted wherein
  Emergency services were targeted for
  harmonization
• As per the Resolution 5-1, India submitted the
  Working group on E-NUM for SATRC Members

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Previous SATRC Activities on QoS

• Need to define benchmarks for Cellular and VOIP
  based services
• Enforcement Mechanism required to guarantee
  service standards and quality to the customer
• Six QoS parameters decided by Bhutan meeting
  should be adopted by SATRC Members

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Previous SATRC Activities on Licensing

• SATRC Member countries expressed their concerns
  about Licensing issues as their telecom scenario
  goes from monopoly to liberalization
• Need for an appropriate dispute resolution
  mechanism
• A final report on Licensing could be prepared by
  the Working Group after taking inputs from all
  SATRC Members

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Previous SATRC Activities on USO

• Progress have been made in member countries on as
  per their USO definitions (inputs needed from
  remaining countries)
• Flexible definitions for rural and unserved areas
  and appropriate monitoring mechanism for USO.
• Choice of funding schemes based on market
  demands, industrialization and service
  competition
• Successfully implemented USO programs could be
  the right direction to follow for other members

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Previous SATRC Activities on Tariff Re-Balancing

• Consultation paper is being prepared on further
  reduction of the sub-regional tariff
• Studies concerning costing, tariff rebalancing
  and settlement charges have been agreed to be
  dealt separately
• New Working Group on Tariff Rebalancing formed by
  Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

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Previous SATRC Activities on Regulatory Reforms
and inputs from PRF

• Various member countries are in different stages
  of transition from monopoly to competition
• Several Countries shared their liberalization
  process within their respective countries
• Regulatory bodies within the member countries and
  their responsibilities were highlighted

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Proposal from members for SATRC Action Plan (SAP)

• 5th SATRC Meeting in Nepal(2003) decided the need
  to convert the key regulatory issues of concerns
  to a SATRC Action Plan (SAP).
• The SAP will be taking account of the Working
  Group reports, presentations from APT/ITU and
  previous reports of SATRC Meetings
• The APT Management Committee would be requested
  to provde budgetary support to implement the SAP

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SATRC Working Methodology

• Working Groups May continue and complete their
  respective assignments and reports
• Workshop Workshop may be conducted involving APT
  Experts from the region
• Guidelines Needed to deal with regulatory issues
  with case studies of best practises
• Training Training of personnel to help build
  institutional capacity in Regulation (with
  priority to LDCs)

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Conclusions and Recommendations

• SATRC Members need to cooperate and coordinate
  among each other in a more effective way in order
  to achieve a harmonized telecom environment
  within the region
• A universal working methodolgy should be adopted
  by the council to enable effective functioning of
  the members in their key areas of regulatory
  concerns
• ICT Meeting of the Industries could be approved
  as an yearly event preceding the SATRC Meeting to
  get the private sector perspective from the
  region

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APT Welcomes you to the Sixth South Asian
Telecommunications Regulatory Council (SATRC)
Meeting !
Thank You !