Minister laments not being in charge of TRC to clear legal snags
The much awaited and long overdue Google Loon project initiated last year may not take off due to legal constraints in spectrum allocations, Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando said.
Speaking to media in Colombo he said that firstly the project pilot project did not receive the much needed clearance for spectrum from The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission as well as from the International Telecommunications Commission due to the same issue.
Fernando said he is disappointed that though he is the Telecommunications Minister is not in charge of the TRC. “This may be the reason I could not get the much needed approvals. Now we have forwarded this matter to the Attorney General for his views.”
Fernando said that in addition the project also carried a lot of negative local publicity which may also have had a negative impact. “To clear both local and foreign legal issues it will take another two years. I understand that Google has now looked for other options and they are about to select another country to launch this project.” The Minister said Rama is a company owned by Chamath Palihapitiya who was the go between for the project.
“Subsequently several Ministers and even the Prime Minister visited and met Google top brass and they decided to launch the pilot project of the world’s first Google loon project from Sri Lanka.”
*In July, 2015 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ICTA, Google Loon LLC and two of its affiliates Lotus Flare Holdings Limited and Rama Co. for the purpose of formalising working relationships and facilitating pilot project implementation. He said the Google top brass for the first time visited Sri Lanka and did launch a test balloon. He said that though the project is in the balance now, had it gone through as planned Sri Lanka would have been the first country in the world where the entire country would be covered by 4G. “If this had happened there would have been an influx of foreign investors to Sri Lanka to take advantage from this.” Commenting on the new tax structure imposed on the internet he said that this is a temporary measure and would be reduced when local television channels go full digital soon. “Then the spectrum would clear and then we would be able to offer lower tariff.”
Fernando said there was lot of negative publicity for the project and at one point he was also called ‘Balloon Harin’ and he convened the media to clear some of the misconceptions.
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