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| Sunday, 20 June 2004 |
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Liberal laws to meet telecom needs - Minister D.M Jayaratne by Hiran H. Senewiratne The government will liberalise the law on fixed, wireless and mobile phone operators to permit the supply of land phones either fixed or wireless, to meet the country's telecommunication needs, Minister of Telecommunication and Udarata Development D.M Jayaratne told "Sunday Observer" Business. He said the main objective of this move is to supply one million land lines within the next three years to the whole country. "With the change of the law, the restriction on phone companies to supply both fixed and wireless phones will be removed, which would result in an increase in the country's tele- density," Minister Jayaratne said. The change of the law would allow mobile phone operators to enter into the business, he added. According to the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) the country's land line demand at present is more than 700,000, and increases by 100,000 applications each year. . Minister Jayaratne also that said the government is planning to do an islandwide survey to obtain information to assert the country's land-line requirement, in the future. The Minister also said that he had already had discussions with relevant phone operators on this matter and that some of the mobile phone companies had agreed to enter into the fixed- line business. To expedite matters the government is considering the issuing of licences to six new phone companies in the future, he added. These new entrants would be given licences on a contract basis to be renewed every five years on the basis to of their performance, the Minister said Mr. Jayaratne said that they want to add another ten acres the Telecom city project (at present eight acres) to develop the project to reach international standards in providing 25,000 employment opportunities. The government's share holding of 49.5 per cent of Sri Lanka Telecom will not be disposed of at all ,the Minister said. Currently, the country has a network of almost 800,000 land lines and 1.2 million mobile phones. |
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