World Dialogue on Regulation

According to a report by The Financial Times, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Pradip Baijal, said that telecom providers in rural areas should be granted free spectrum in order to increase teledensity in rural areas, which currently stands at 1.55%.

According to a Prime-Tass report, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) for the Novosibirsk Region concluded that regional operator Sibirtelecom violated anti-monopoly law when it dramatically increased tariffs it charges other operators for E-1 ports.

According to a Reuters report, Telmex is preparing to route voice traffic over the Internet, using technology that could reduce its long-distance revenues. Mexico's government has not yet created regulations for voice over IP (VoIP) telephone service and probably won’t until next year.

According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, the government is making efforts to establish a fund for telecom development. China is expected to connect all households to the telecommunications network, including those in rural areas, by 2020, the Ministry of Information Industry said.

According to a Reuters report, Uzbekistan’s government will only sell a 49% stake in Uzbektelecom. The move came as a surprise to a  consultant working on the privatisation who said a minority stake would be difficult to sell. An Uzbektelecom representative said the government decided to reduce the stake to 49% from 64.2%.

According to a report by Business Day, based on regulatory developments, Total Access Communication, Thailand’s second largest mobile operator, says that it will continue to target lower revenue subscribers.

According to a report by AFX Asia, the Indian government intends to merge Mahangar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), two state-controlled telephone operators. Junior Communications Minister Shakeel Ahmad said the government was shortlisting investment bankers to advise on the merger.

According to a Reuters report, Celtel, Africa's third-largest mobile phone company, wants governments to review interconnection laws in order to make telephony easier and cheaper, a company representative said.

According to a report by Business News Americas, Anatel, Brazil's telecoms regulator, plans to avoid using existing resources from the universal access fund (FUST) for its broadband access program SCD. Instead, resources generated in 2005 will be used to finance FUST.

Indian government's Ministry of Communications & Information Technology issued a press release describing the results of the bidding process to serve “secondary switching areas”.