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The Government will gradually remove most technology specifications from the licences of telecom service providers, including that between mobile and fixed. The futile effort to distinguish between voice and data will be abandoned. "Depending on the overall agreement that can be achieved, the technology restrictions currently in the Sri Lanka Telecom, WLL Operator licences will be modified to enable them to use wire-guide and wireless technologies, as they see appropriate. Sri Lanka Telecom will be allowed to use wireless local loops without restriction, subject only to spectrum constraints. WLL operators will be allowed to draw wires to connect customers, subject only to procedures regarding rights of way," Kumar Abeysinghe, Secretary, Ministry of Mass Communications said.

"All facilities-based telecom operators (those entitled to obtain frequencies from the TRC and to build their own networks), including mobile operators, will be allowed to bid for the least-cost subsidies that are being formulated with the support of the World Bank. These programs are intended to roll out broadband infrastructure in the currently underserved, low-teledensity areas of the country," Abeysinghe said.

The Government will closely monitor the working of cross entry and the demand for the scarce resources of frequencies and rights of way in the rural areas. This assessment will form the basis of the design of a sustainable regime for cross entry in the high-teledensity areas, which are primarily urban. The Government intends to relax the constraints on cross entry after a period of 12 months, which may be extended.

Entry by mobile operators into the fixed sector can be undertaken with the existing frequency assignments, though there may be a demand for additional frequencies in urban areas. Entry by fixed operators into mobile services will necessarily require the assignment of new frequencies. The Government has committed to assist the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to prepare for the qualitatively higher demands that will be made of it for the efficient management of the radio frequency spectrum.

In-house consultants will be retained shortly to assess the current state of frequency monitoring and management, to evaluate the utilisation of the automated frequency monitoring and management system obtained with World Bank assistance in 1999, to help Sri Lanka meet its WTO commitments with regard to the management of the spectrum resource and to assess the training activities so far and propose improvements. The solicitation of expressions of interest for this task will be issued in the next week or two", Abeysinghe said.

"The government considers the efficient management of the spectrum resource to be a precondition of technology-neutral licensing," Abeysinghe said. He said that the concept of technology-neutral licensing has been extensively discussed with stakeholders in the course of consultations on the national telecommunications policy that stretched over a period of years.

Sri Lanka will be at the leading edge of policy innovation with regard to allowing fixed-mobile cross entry. However, many if not most, countries have recognised the futility of distinguishing between voice and data. There is also substantial agreement among experts on the necessity of removing limitations such as the wireless-only condition that was included in the fixed-operator licences issued to Suntel and Lanka Bell in 1996.

"In a fast changing technology environment, the best judges of technology are the operators who put their money on the line and the customers who pay for services, not Government officials," Abeysinghe said.

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