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Asian Expert Forum Report Print E-mail
Written by Ayesha Zainudeen   
Monday, 11 October 2004
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Asian Expert Forum Report
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Day 2
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The first day was dedicated to the presentation of the final case studies under the 2003/04 WDR theme, Stimulating Investment in Network Development: Roles for regulators, including revisions following the African Expert Meeting held in Cairo in May 2004. Intensive discussions drew out the problems of reducing regulatory hindrances to investment as well as the lessons from varied regulatory experiences.

Case studies were presented on Bangladesh (de Silva and Khan), India (Malik), Sri Lanka (Samarajiva, Fernando, Sanderatne & Manikkalingam) and South Africa (Gillwald). The case studies assessed the Telecom Regulatory Environments (TRE) in the countries studied against levels of investment in the telecom sectors. The methodology was based on an earlier version of the Sri Lanka case study (Samarajiva & Dokeniya, 2003).

Findings ranged from:

  • Bangladeshi mobile networks reduced to a nationwide intercom system, rather than a telephone network due to abysmal interconnection;
  • A liberalized external gateway, with more than thirty external gateway operator license holders in Sri Lanka – only a handful with interconnection to the PSTN;
  • Foreign equity holding regulations hampering the fund raising ability of the Indian telecom sector; stark disparities in rural and urban teledensities in India, 1.49 and 15.16 per hundred inhabitants respectively;
  • Indian access deficit charges, built into interconnection charges and paid directly to the incumbent, to compensate it for providing below-cost service in rural areas inflating prices and possibly encouraging inefficient bypass and network duplication; and
  • Enormous unmet demand in South Africa, inaccessible due to regulatory market constraints.

A common and nevertheless unsurprising thread running through all the cases was a negative perception of the state-owned incumbents; this stemmed from a range of issues, such as interconnection disputes, anticompetitive practices, resistance to reform, favorable treatment from regulators, etc. 

Nevertheless, all was not glum; some countries have performed well in the TRE variables, and showed encouraging resultant levels of investment coming into the telecom sectors. For instance, investment in India’s telecom sector grew sharply after significant improvements to the TRE over 1999-2000, including the separation of the regulator from the incumbent.

The day was concluded on an enjoyable note. A gala dinner was held on the private beach of the hotel, to mark the official launch of LIRNEasia, complete with the traditional lighting of the oil lamp, speeches by the distinguished guests – Mr. Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to the Prime Minister reading a message from the Prime Minister and Mr. Milinda Moragoda, MP, former Minister for Economic Reform and ICTs – a colorful fusion dance performance, and a raging performance from the South-west Monsoon.