Introduction:

South Asian Telecommunication Regulator’s Council (SATRC) was formed in 1997 by an initiative of APT and ITU Regulatory Forum for South Asia. The SATRC is responsible for discussion and coordination of all the issues relating to regulations in telecommunication and ICT which are of common interest to the telecommunication regulators in South Asian countries. These issues included radio frequency coordination, standards, regulatory trends and issues, strategies for telecommunication development and telecommunication related international affairs. The council also indentifies and promotes areas of potential cooperation in telecommunication among South Asian countries; and facilitates the exchange of information in these areas through activities such as seminars, training and workshop.

SATRC activities are conducted by involvement of the highest level representations by the regulatory bodies of the South Asian countries. At present, SATRC is consisted of nine South Asian countries. The countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Islamic Republic of Iran, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Affiliate members from those countries are also taking active participation in the council’s activity.
The SATRC meetings are being held annually to address common concerns and issues of importance.

The SATRC meetings are being held annually to address common concerns and issues of importance. At present, Mr. V. P. K. Anusha Palpita, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka is the chairman of SATRC for the current term of Chairmanship.

Terms of Reference:

The Terms of Reference of the Council was adopted by the 3^rd Meeting of the Council which was held 19-21 March 2001 in Thimphu, Bhutan. Please click to view the Terms of Reference.

SATRC Action Plan:

The SATRC Action Plan (SAP) aims at addressing the regulatory issues and challenges of common concern to its members that arise due to technological, market dynamic, and innovations and developments in services in the field of information and communications so as to harness their full potential in a harmonious manner for the benefit of all by utilizing the expertise and financial resources available from within its member countries.

The concept of developing SATRC Action Plan was initiated in 2005 from the fact that the key issues can be addressed in a more focused and concentrated manner by adoption of an Action Plan. The Action Plan provides a common charter to SATRC members for deriving the synergy of collaborative wisdom and action. Action Plan implementation mechanism includes Working Group activities, organizing seminars/workshops, traning for capacity building and information sharing through web portal. For financing the implementation of the various activities and projects under the Action Plan, a core fund was created from the extra-budgetary contributions made by the SATRC members. At present SATRC is implementing SATRC Action Plan Phase III for the duration of 2010-2011.

SATRC Action Plan Phase I was implemented during 2004-2006 and Action Plan Phase II was implemented is 2007-2009. Please click on the relevant link to see about the detail of the different Action Plan Phase.

SATRC Action Plan Phase III:

The 11^th SATRC Meeting, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 24 -26 November 2009, adopted SATRC Action Plan Phase III for the duration of year 2010-2011. Action Plan Phase III has three basic components:

• Working Groups:To conduct the work items taken under Action Plan Phase III.

• Capacity Building: To organize workshops/trainings for the personnel of regulatory bodies on the recent trends in telecommunication/ICT sector

• SATRC Web Portal: To collect the information from regulatory bodies and publish it on SATRC webpage for information sharing among the regulators

Action Plan Phase III also adopted a new Working Group structure, which is permanent type in nature, to deal with various working itmes proposed by the members. The structure is categorize as follows:

• Working Group on Policy and Regulation: To deal with the issues related to policy, regulation and development of Telecommunication and ICT sector in the region. This WG is chaired by Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

• Working Group on Spectrum: To deal with the issues related to spectrum management, monitoring, sharing and coordinated efficient use of spectrum for different service in the region. This WG is chaired by Communication Regulatry Authority (CRA) of Islamic Republic of Iran.

• Working Group on Network and Services: To deal with the issues related to the network deployment, innovative technologies for networking and different aspect of network services. This WG is chaired by the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL).

The Working Groups will follow the working procedures as decided by the 11^th SATRC Meeting. Please click to download the Working Procedure of the Working Groups.

Office Bearers:

• SATRC Chairman: Mr. V. P. K. Anusha Palpita, Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka

• Chairman of WG on Policy and Regulation: Mr. S. K. Gupta, Advisor (Converged Network), Telecommunication Regulatory Authority of India

• Chairman of WG on Spectrum: Mr. Mohammad Zommorodi, Communication Regulatory Authority, Islamic Republic of Iran

• Chairman of WG on Network and Services: Mr. Indrajith Handapangoda, Deputy Director (Competition), Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka

Please click here to download the contact details of the office bearers and nominated experts for the WGs.

Email Reflectors:

• WG on Policy and Regulation: satrc-wg-policy@apt.int
• WG on Spectrum: satrc-wg-spectrum@apt.int
• WG on Network and Services: satrc-wg-network@apt.int

 
Meetings, Workshop, Seminars:

SATRC Web Portal:

The objective of SATRC Web Portal is to collect the information from regulatory bodies and publish it on SATRC webpage for information sharing among the regulators. Please click here to open the portal.

Related Documents:

• Report of the 11th SATRC Meeting
• SATRC Action Plan Phase III
• SATRC Restructure
• SATRC Calender for 2010
• Implementation report of SATRC Action Plan Phase II

Contact:

If you have any query regarding SATRC activities please contact to,

APT Secretariat
12/49 Soi:5 Chaengwattana Road
Bangkok 10210, Thailand
Phone: +66 2 573 0044
Email: aptsatrc@apt.int