The Telecommunications and Regulatory Commission (TRCSL) of Sri Lanka is to shortly approve unlimited internet packages locally soon. Currently, there are unlimited packages offered by telecommunication service providers to certain websites and applications.
Director-General of TRCSL Oshada Senanayake said, “With Unlimited Internet offerings being a much-debated topic and after much research and deliberations TRCSL requested service providers to respond with potential packages that could be introduced to the consumers but with required mechanisms to ensure that such offerings are not abused by a few which will negatively impact networks as well as Quality of Service standards.”
The objective of the policy is to increase the digital connectivity of the country and facilitate a higher degree of digital commerce. Senanayake added, “We believe this should be a significant step towards ensuring more inclusivity and accessibility which hopefully would be utilised for meaningful purposes such as the acceleration of the startup, SME ecosystem, entrepreneurship and to contribute to the envisioned creation of a digital economy.”
In response to the announcement Chief Operating Officer Cargills Bank Rohan Muttiah said, “A lot of the rural community are connected but use data sparingly because of the cost. This initiative will make a big difference, and accelerate the number of digitally connected citizens.”
Currently TRCSL regulation prevents telecommunication providers from offering services below their cost of production. This price cap prevents unhealthy price competition within the industry. Share prices in listed service providers were unaffected by the announcement.
The Sri Lankan subreddit forum was concerned with the fair usage policy of the proposed schemes and concerned with potential speed capping of the new packages.
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