Bharti petitions Sri Lankan courts over cap plan

Nicole McCormick
19 Jul 2010
00:00

Indian telco giant Bharti Airtel has petitioned Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court to stop the regulator’s plan to set a floor price for outgoing mobile voice calls.

The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission said on Thursday it wanted mobile operators’ outgoing voice calls capped at LKR2 (US$0.02) per minute, due to two years of tariff wars, reportedAFP.

The TRC reportedly estimates that mobile operator losses reached a total of LKR23 billion or $204 million last year.

Airtel, which launched its Sri Lankan service in January 2009, told the Supreme Court on Friday that unless a newcomer can offer cheaper tariffs than the incumbents then it “will not be able to attract subscribers.”

In its court petition, Airtel said a floor price “will only help the market leader [Axiata’s Dialog Telekom] and maintain the status quo at the expense of the consumer.”

Anusha Palpita, BTRC’s CEO, told AFP last week that mounting operator losses were slowing network roll outs.

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